Mauve Shadows
by cpsuay
Summary: Will and Tessa's families had been really good friends ever since they were five years old. That made Will and Tessa best friends for such a long time, but it now happens to be the second year of high school, and Tessa realizes that she feels something about Will that is more than just a friendship. But ruining this friendship will wether be the best thing, or the worst.
1. The Usual Sunday Night

The dinner table was full of beautiful food. Tessa wasn't that much hungry, but that was the tradition of Grays and Herondales. Three different kinds of meat, no pork, salads and desserts. _Sophie_ _knows_ _her_ _job_ _really,_ Tessa thought, whilst the serving girl was presentating the drinks to Mrs. and Mr. Herondale. "Very well, Sophie, thank you dear." Mrs. Herondale said, with a kind smile on her face. Sophie then looked at Will and Tessa, and after giving them a grin, she left.

Will was sitting on the opposite of Tessa. She knew how it would go, how Will would make fun of the dinner. He would always make fun of his father's speaking, then look at Cecily and Tessa, feel the satisfaction of making the girls laugh. But this time, he was making mimics to Tessa. His eyebrows were wiggling, and his lips were saying something silently.

_Do_ _you_ _want_ _to_ _leave?_

Tessa understood what Will was asking for, but she had to be with her mother. Looking at her left, she listened to her mother's conversation with Edmund Herondale. "Yes, Edmund, I agree. The economic percentages of Axel Mortmain's business are failing. I can help you about anything." Elizabeth Gray, who happened to be Tessa's mother, was in the same business with Edmund Herondale, who happened to be Will's father. They were really good friends since childhood. Linette, Elizabeth, Edmund and Magnus. Linette was now a housewife, who happened to be the early Ella's, and Will and Cecily's mother. Edmund and Elizabeth were in the same job, and Magnus was- still so young-looking, hanging around, being rich without a job.

The conversation between her mom and Will's dad went on and on like this for minutes. When the girl turned her head back to Will, she saw his really bored face.

_Yes,_ she moved her lips. Will understood that, and after a second of seeing it, he did stand up. "Guys, your nice chat makes me want not to leave, but well, I want to leave, so have a good dinner."

Tessa laughed at this talk, but later she came closer to her mom and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "We will hang out with Will outside," She then turned her head to Cecily. Her long, black hair was pony-tailed, her blue eyes all focused on the food. "Are you coming, Cecy?"

Cecily suddenly took her focus off of the food, and looked at Tessa. "Are you mad? Leave this food? Hell to the no."

Tessa grinned and left the dining room of Herondales with the boy.

When they went upstairs to Will's room, Tessa jumped to the boy's bed. "You always ruin the traditions, William." Her voice was full of sarcasm. Well, that was something Will taught to Tessa. Still, Will was way better in sarcasm. "Well, no, because I did it for you, Tess. I saw you being so bored and I thought, why not help her get out, and I did let you get out."

Tessa shook her head, thinking she could never compete with his speaking skills, so she didn't even try to reply him. "Anyways," She slowly opened her braid, and looked at Will's mirror next to his bed. "What are we going to do now?"

Will didn't reply, because he was focused on Tessa's half un-braided hair. Her hair was brown with original curls, but today they were just a little wavy. This wave, Will liked it so much on the girl. "Your hair looks better when it's swinging alone."

Tessa turned around and looked at Will. He never used to make compliments on Tessa. She knew he liked it like that, but she felt surprised when he told it by himself. The situation of Will complimenting on Tessa's hair was a bit awkward, honestly. "Wow," she said. "How come William Owen Herondale make compliments about my hair?"

Will heard the sarcasm, and tried to get rid of the awkward situation. He came back to his normal, sarcastic self. "You know I like it swinged, Tess."

"Oh yes I do, but I had never heard you saying it by yourself."

Will grinned. He stood up, went next to his door, then opened it. It was time to go and have fun. "This is a nice way of telling me I'm a douchebag." he said. Tessa looked at him and stood up. She was grinning, but didn't reply but took her black handbag. After looking at herself on the mirror for the last time, she got out of the room.

They went downstairs. Tessa made Will wait to say goodbye to everyone, so it took five minutes for them to leave the house. When they did, Tessa walked fastly to the boy's black Range Rover. She was just about to get in, but saw someone coming closer to Will. At first, she thought it was someone who was about to fight with him, but then she realized that it was Gideon Lightwood, whom happened to be one of Will's really close friends.

He gave a brotherly hug to Will, came and kiss Tessa on the cheek, and turned back to Will again. "Is she inside?"

Will grinned. He looked satisfied that he was asked about this. His ocean dark blue eyes widened. "Yeah. Go inside and say that you left your shirt a few days ago. Spend some time with her."

Gideon smiled. He looked thankful for being helped like this. Well, Tessa liked the situation and smiled at Gideon when he was leaving, but she couldn't understand anything at all. Who was "she"?

Will opened the door for Tessa, and after Tessa got in, he closed it and went to the other side to get in. When they were both in, Tessa couldn't stop herself but to ask it. "Who was he talking about?"

Will grinned. He looked like he knew she was going to ask this. "You will never stop wondering, Tess, will you?"

Tessa smiled. "No. So, who's the lucky girl?"

"He's been crushing on Sophie, but that's a secret, nobody knows it. I trust you."

Tessa felt the nerves in her heart again. Gideon crushing on Sophie was such a cute thing, but she wasn't aching because of that. Whenever Will said he trusted her, whenever he said he loved her so much, as a bestfriend, Tessa was getting it in a different way. She was getting everything wrong, and that was making her feel in a wrong way. She- was Tessa, and he was Will, who happened to be Tessa's bestest friend since they were five. This thing happening for weeks now, had to be stopped.

"Are you okay, Tess?"

The girl opened her eyes widely, and turned her head to the boy, smiling in a secure way. "Yes, I just, I was thinking how cute they could be. And- where are we going, William?"

Will grinned. "Tomorrow's Monday," he said. His grin widened. "So let's explore the inches of London before school, Tess."


	2. What Trust Can Mean

That morning, Tessa woke up with a grin. Even though her curly hair was all over her head, her gray eyes were almost unseen because of crust round her eyes, she had a smile on her face. On sunday nights, she usually used to sleep at midnight, but yesterday, Will didn't let her to. They went to Victoria, and even though almost nowhere was open, they found a late night ice cream seller and bought two ice creams. Will's ice cream fell down because he was trying to make Tessa laugh insanely, but he did, so they didn't care about the ice cream's fall. Tessa made him eat hers.

She stood up, and looked at the long mirror next to her big wardrobe. Her pijamas were red with trees on them. She had no bra on because they always were making her uncomfortable at nights.

Her room was big, and she had a bathroom right next to it. She walked to the bathroom and brushed her teeth with her blue-white teethbrush. In front of the tap, the wall was filled with a mirror, so she checked if her teeth was real white. After being sure on that, she washed her face with shining pore one minute mask to make sure her pores were to leave.

After doing all of these, she was just about to get dressed, she heard a message alerting ring coming from her phone.

She got rid of her pijamas and with only a shirt and underpants, she came quickly next to her bed to take her phone. The message was from Will.

_Moning,_ _Tess!_ _Ugh,_ _feeling_ _really_ _happy_ _today._ _Who_ _will_ _drop_ _you_ _off?_

After reading it, she started texting fastly.

_Morning,_ _William._ _I_ _don't_ _know,_ _probs_ _my_ _mom._

A minute was gone. Two minutes. Three minutes. Tessa dropped her phone to her bed and after realizing that Will was not going to answer, she went back in front to the wardrobe. She was just about to wear her skinny jeans, her phone started ringing.

_Will_

She opened the phone. "What up, William?"

She could feel Will grinning. Just for caution if he was there or anything, she stayed away from the window. If he saw her with underpants, she knew, he would have never stopped making fun of it. "I don't think your mom will drop you off, Tess, cuz she texted me at six in the morning saying if I could drop you off to school."

Tessa laughed. "Oh yeah?"

"Oh yeah," he replied. "Now look out of the window, please."

Tessa facepalmed. "Umm- not available at the moment, William."

"Oh," he said, Tessa could hear him laughing a little. "I'm your best friend, Tess, don't be shy."

Her room's window was not just a little window, only showing your chest and head. Tessa's window was covering the whole wall. It was both long and wide. _Oh,_ _what_ _the_ _hell,_ _he's_ _Will_ _anyways,_ she thought, and came closer to the window. First, she looked around, making sure nobody was around, then she looked right down, at Will. She closed the phone and opened one of the window glasses. "You don't know what patience is, do you?"

Will grinned. He looked at the girl's legs, her shirt and with an unquiet laugh, her underpants. "Actually I do. I just couldn't resist not to see that."

Tessa laughed unwillingly. She gave Will a mischievous look, then shouted. "Five minutes. Start counting!"

She closed the window glass and went to the wardrobe and wore her skinny jeans. On that, she wore a black t-shirt saying SYDNEY CARLTON LIVES with matte black writing on.

Later she made a little make-up just doing eyeliner on her eyes. Then she went down and took her forest green backbag and keys, and she got out of the house.

"How many minutes?"

Will looked at his phone. "Almost seven."

"Ugh," Tessa moaned with disappointment. "One day, I'll be down in five."

Will grinned. He opened the door for the girl. "Thank you, gentleman."

Will's grin widened. "No problem, lady."

In the car, they kept talking about how yesterday was. Will kept denying the fact that _he_ dropped his ice cream on the ground. "I was trying to make you laugh! That means it's your fault."

"But you dropped it anyways. I didn't tell you to do that, William."

"I don't care, it's cheating. Anyways, I ate yours."

Tessa laughed. "Oh yeah."

Alicante High School was a successfull school filled with clever, but also social students. In Literature and Mathematics, Tessa was the best in her year, and Will was the best in his year. Even though Tessa was asked to take one year olders' lessons because she was so good in her year, she didn't accept it, because she wanted to stay in school, not to leave. So, Will was a year older than her, but that didn't matter, they were always seeing each other.

It was 8:15 in the morning. The lesson was going to begin at 8:45, so they still had a lot of time.

School's garden was really big as if it was a park. People were seperated into groups and whilst Tessa and Will were walking to reach to their "gang", everyone was staring at the two. "I can't believe I have to stay here for two more years," Will whispered to Tessa whilst walking. Tessa shook her head. "Don't say that, I love it in here."

Will waved a hand to joggers, the people who happened to be Will's team mates. Tessa always used to think how Will was managing to keep his classes in the highest level, and still do sports, but now she wasn't wondering anymore. She did become used to it.

Jem, Sophie, Gideon, Cecily and Gabriel were sitting on grass, and when Tessa and Will saw them, they started walking faster.

Tessa hugged Sophie and Cecily, then greeted the boys, too. Will did the same thing. Unwillingly, Tessa's eyes catched Gideon's whilst he was just about to look at Sophie. When the boy saw Tessa seeing that, he blushed. Tessa shook her head with a smile on her face. "No worries, I know everything."

Gideon relieved. His blushing was no more. "Oh, okay then."

Nobody except for Will understood them, but they didn't care anyways. Tessa looked at their gang with a smile on her face. Cecily and Gabriel were having a chat, and Cecily was being stuffed-shirty in a cute way. Sophie was sitting silently, talking to nobody. Gideon was watching her of course, probably he was thinking of ways to get to her. Will and Jem, as real boy best friends, were chatting, too. And Tessa, was sitting on the grass alone just like Sophie.

When she was just about to go sit next to Sophie, she felt a hand on her shoulder. "Morning!"

It was Thomas, whom happened to be Tessa's flirt, and Will's close friend, his team mate.

Will looked at the hand on Tessa's shoulder, then looked up at Thomas. "Morning, mate. What's up?"

Thomas grinned and looked at Tessa. "I was actually going ask your permission to take Tessa."

Tessa looked surprised, but smiled. Will raised one of his eyebrows. "What are you going to do with Tessa?"

Tessa shook her head and stood up. "I'm a grown-up, Thomas, you don't need to ask to him to hang out with me."

Will got angry. His eyes got even more blue. He wasn't like this usually, but Thomas? Who the hell was he to take Tessa away from him? His best friend? "You're my priority today. And I don't remember saying yes. What will you do with Tessa? You don't even know her."

Thomas grinned. "You say so, bro," he said, looking at Tessa as if their flirtation was a big secret sin. "We had been friends with Tess since the beginning of summer."

_Oh,_ Tessa thought. _Oh, no. You_ _did_ _not_ _just_ _say_ _Tess,_ _Thomas._

Tessa saw the fire in Will's eyes, so she sat back down. She knew he never saw Tessa more than a friend, but in situations like this, he was getting really jealous. He wasn't a protective brother to Cecily, and actually, he was like a girl and he was usually making fun of these stuff, but when it came to Tessa, he was becoming this person. "Tommy, you can leave," he said. He was talking to Thomas, but his eyes were on Tessa's. "We have to study Biology with Tessa."

Thomas understood, and after giving Tessa a kiss on the cheek, he left. Everyone in the gang were watching the two as if they were watching a movie.

Will stood up, and looked at the grass blankly. He was trying not to make eye contact with the girl. "Let's go."

Tessa was now remembering, he had to study Biology with Will. The only class Tessa was hating on was Biology, but Will was in love with it, so he promised her to study with her on Monday. Today was Monday. "I'm sorry," she said silently, she knew Will was a little angry. "I forgot about our studying."

Will stopped. They were inside the school, right next to the library door. "Look, Tess, I'm sorry," he said. Probably he didn't hear what Tessa said seconds ago. "I'm not your dad or anything. I just- Am I not your best friend?"

Tessa took a deep breath. "You are of course. Why?"

"Then why didn't you tell me you were flirting with Thomas?"

Tessa opened her mouth. "I wasn't- I was just-"

Will shook his head. "Don't do that again. Just... Properly, please?"

Tessa took a deep breath again. "Remember that last basketball match you had in June?"

"Yes?"

Girl's voice was shaking a little. "I came to your match that day to support you. You were all focused on Tatiana and you didn't see me, so Thomas saw me and said you guys were dating. I didn't even know, I promise, if I did, I wouldn't even had come. He had a chat with me, he wrote my number, then left."

Will closed his eyes. That day of match- _Damn_ _it!_ He thought. Tatiana Lightwood, he dated her because she was Gideon's sister and was also in love with Will. He thought Tessa wasn't coming that day. _Fuck_ _it,_ he thought.

"Tess, I am so sorry for leaving you alone."

Tessa shook her head. She tried to act as if she wasn't caring even a little. "No, William, don't be. I was just- a week later, when you broke up, I even learned that from Thomas."

Will nodded. He looked at Tessa, tried to see a movement of disappointment, but there wasn't. She was probably thinking that this was Will, like always. A douchebag like always.

All in a sudden, he held her hands. He couldn't resist it. He edited her curls, then looked at her in the eyes. "I promise I will tell you my everything from now on," he said. "I give you an oath. I will tell you everything, okay? No secrets. I trust you."

Tessa smiled. She felt weird, a little weird, but this was the thing happening like always. Will was her best friend. Nothing more.

"I trust you, too."

She had to date with Thomas to forget the boy and this all.


	3. The Turning Tables

**Hello everyone. I'm still not sure about my pen name, so for now, you can call me C.P. **

**If you've read the first two chapters, thank you. But after this chapter, things will begin. Wether there will be no readers or so many, I'm planning on writing at least thirty chapters hopefully. **

**I know that there were no intense moments between Tessa and Will in the first chapters yet, but beginning from the third chapter, I'm planning on beginning my real story. Thank you for sticking up with me.**

**Oh, and also thank you to Thedarkwhiteangel! Your review means lots to me! **

**Lots love. Enjoy your reading!**

The school's library was really big. There were twenty shelves for young adult books, twenty for adults, thirteen for kids, four for classics and twenty two for different country books. The library was designed as a circle, and in the middle of the big place, there were five big desks and chairs. Tessa and Will walked to the brown, wood desk and sat on the chairs. Will had little anger pieces left from the conversation minutes ago, but he was getting over it, and Tessa was seeing that.

Will got his Biology for tenth grades book and put it on the desk. He started waiting for Tessa to put it, too.

The girl looked inside of her back bag. She forgot that they were going to study Biology, so she didn't have any Biology books with her. Luckily, Will's book was for her grade. She couldn't thank him enough. "I forgot it at home."

Will smiled. "No probs, Tess."

When she felt the sarcastic sound in Will's voice, she felt relieved.

They started studying. Will was a really good teacher. Even though Tessa was one of the bests at school, she had problems with memorizing things in Biology, but Will was patient, and he was repeating everything that Tessa had troubles with.

"When's your exam?" He asked, his voice was full of calmness. When he was studying, it was as if he was acting in front of cameras, because he was becoming a different person. "December first," she said, just as calm as Will. It was October, so she had a lot of time, but she had to study for Biology.

After hearing when the exam was going to be, Will kept on studying, but this time he was not focusing, and Tessa was not focusing, too. "Will," she said. The boy stopped and looked at the girl. His eyes were beautiful. "What's going on with us?"

Will raised an eyebrow. He had a sarcastic grin on. "I thought we talked about this,"

"No," she replied. She closed the book. There were months, so it was stupid to study for it at the moment. "Since June- except for the Sunday Evenings, we are not even telling each other stuff _properly._" Her voice sounded painful, and also shaking. That was because they were so good. They used to cuddle and watch movies, read Charles Dickens, and make gossips about bitchy girls at school.

She knew what was it all about.

Until it was June, Tessa and Will used to talk about Tatiana Lightwood. _I_ _know_ _she's_ _very_ _ugly,_ Will used to say, _I_ _tried_ _my_ _best_ _to_ _make_ _her_ _not_ _to_ _like_ _me,_ _but_ _she's_ _not_ _giving_ _up._ _Still,_ _don't_ _worry,_ _Tess._ _You're_ _my_ _number_ _one._

Tessa shivered. She looked at Will, and saw that the boy was looking at her, questioning. "Sorry, what did you say?"

Will grinned. "Tess, are you okay? Do you want me to drop you off?"

Tessa nodded. She wasn't feeling okay, and she needed time to think about everything. She had so many things to do, and yet she didn't even know where to begin. "Can you come with me, too?"

The lessons had ten minutes more to begin, so they could leave without any permission from the teachers. "My first girl needs me," he said, standing up. He took Tessa's backpag, too. "And I say no? Hell to the no."

Tessa grinned and hugged him. Will dropped the backbags. "Oops," he said. Tessa laughed and got her head in Will's chest. He was smelling like London, like wine, and like- like Will. She hadn't been hugging him for a long time, and this felt good.

"Let's go to mine, nobody's at home."

Even though nobody was at Tessa's, too, Tessa agreed to go to Will's, because he had much more cooler books than Tessa did.

Sophie was a part-time worker at Will's, because she was going to school in the daylight. When it was eight at the evening, she was coming to Will's, then she was leaving at midnight. So, now, nobody was home to cook them. Luckily, Tessa knew well how to cook.

They got in, and immediately, Will went to the living room to sit on the relaxing couch. Tessa came a minute later, with a smile on her face. She sat down next to him uncomfortably. Will hugged her, and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Okay, now tell me what's going on."

_Shit,_ Tessa thought. She thought that he'd not understand that Tessa was upset. She thought that he could just think that she was sick or something. But he was smart, what was she expecting?

"Nothing, William. I'm alright."

Will hugged her more tight. "You're not alright. When you lie, you shiver, Tess."

Tessa smiled, but Will didn't see that. She went back, and sat on another couch. This time, she was comfortable. "I'm okay, Will."

Will raised an eyebrow, but when he saw Tessa being so stubborn about this, he gave up and stood up. "You can tell me if you're bad when you're ready. But now, I'm so hungry! I heard that there was a stunning girl named Tess who could cook perfectly."

Tessa laughed. She stood up, and started walking to the kitchen. When she arrived, she looked at Will, who was right behind her. "What do you want to eat, Mr. Herondale?"

Will heard the sarcasm, and he replied with sarcasm, too. "I wouldn't say no to pasta, Ms. Gray."

Tessa started cooking. She didn't know where the stuff were, but she found them later, and did a great job.

As a gesture, she made a salad, too. She started slicing the tomatoes, and saw Will standing next to herself. "Wow," he said, looking impressed. "You're like a kitchen ninja," When Tessa put the slices professionally in the salad bowl, the salad was done. There were onions, tomatoes and greens. "Can you put this on the dining table?"

Will took the bowl in his hands. "On your order, Ms. Gray."

When she was done with the pasta, she separated it into two plates, and put them on a tray. Then she put two coke bottles next to the plates.

She designed the table, and when it was ready, she called Will, who was sitting on the couch, reading a book.

They sat down together and started eating. Will closed his eyes and started making weird noises. "Ummmmm... This is perfect, Tess. You were born to do pasta."

Tessa grinned, but she thought that he was exegerating. "It's not that good, Will. You're just overreacting."

"Overreacting?" He was now sounding like Cecily. "I, as a perfect gourmet, am saying that this pasta is beyond perfect. Any objections?"

Tessa laughed. She didn't reply him, because he was complimenting on something about Tessa for the second time, and Tessa wasn't going to ruin that.

When they finished eating, Tessa got a text. She unlocked her phone and after sitting on the brown couch, she read it.

_A_ _Message_ _From_ _Thomas_

_Where_ _are_ _you?_ _I_ _had_ _to_ _ask_ _you_ _something!_

Tessa looked at Will. She promised to tell everything to him. "I got a text from Thomas."

Will put everything in place in the kitchen, then came back to the living room and sat next to Tessa. "Who's it?"

Tessa didn't bother herself on telling it, so she gave her phone to Will. The boy looked at the text, then looked at Tessa. "What's it going on between you and him?"

Tessa was about to reply him, but she heard the door noise. It was Cecily. "I'm home!"

Tessa stood up. Will lifted his arm, his hand and Tessa's phone was now so high. "I should go, Will."

"Are you going to date him?"

_Why_ _is_ _he_ _even_ _wondering?_

"I don't know?"

"How come you not know, Tess? Are you going to date him or not?"

_Why_ _wouldn't_ _he_ _mind_ _his_ _own_ _fucking_ _business? God._

"Did you ask me before you dated Tatiana? Mind your own business, Will!" She realized that she shouted hard. Cecily was next to the door, watching them shocked. When both of them looked at her, she walked fast to upstairs. Will's eyes turned back to Tessa's. "We promised each other, Tessa."

Tessa shook her head. "The day you ignored me, Will," she said. "When you ignored me on that match day, I broke, and I think it will take time."

Will tried to take Tessa's hand, but Tessa ignored him. "Tess, I'm sorry. I'm- I'm such a douchebag. I am! Forgive me, please. You won't be the girlfriend of Thomas just because of me, huh?"

Tessa laughed sarcastically. Will now hesitated that he taught her that. "Why would I date someone because of you? If you're really wondering, big brother, then yes, I will date him! Even though he isn't my "best friend", he will be paying attention to me."

She took her back bag in front of the door, then left without looking behind. Her house was ten minutes by walk, so it wasn't a big deal. The big deal was that she was crying now.

She reached out for her phone in the pocket, but it wasn't there. _By_ _the_ _angel!_ she thought. She forgot it at Will's. _Whatever,_ she thought again. She was going to call her mother's and her friend Magnus Bane, but she could just go to his house instead. If there was one person she could trust after Will, that was for sure Magnus. He could understand her feels beautifully.

_I_ _hope_ _he_ _won't_ _say_ _that_ _I_ _shouldn't_ _stop_ _liking_ _him,_ _and_ _the_ _idea_ _of_ _"Will_ _and_ _Tessa"_ _would_ _be_ _a_ _cool_ _thing._


	4. The Resentment

**Okay, I was going to post this tomorrow, but I just couldn't wait that long. This is the longest chapter I've ever written I guess. Consider my uploading that soon as a gesture, please, because I post daily, or after two days. Thank you for reading again!**

**Lots love, C.P.**

_You_ _only_ _know_ _what_ _I_ _want_ _you_ _to,_

_I_ _know_ _everything_ _you_ _don't_ _want_ _me_ _to,_

_Oh_ _your_ _mouth_ _is_ _poison,_ _your_ _mouth_ _is_ _wine,_

_You_ _think_ _your_ _dreams_ _are_ _the_ _same_ _as_ _mine._

Will was going through Tessa's songs on her phone. This song was sung by The Civil Wars, and it was called Poison & Wine. He remembered the time when they found this song. Will liked those songs, and Tessa, too, and whilst listening to Frank Sinatra on iTunes, they saw the "Suggestions" corner and Tessa randomly pressed on Poison & Wine's play button. Will liked it so much and bought the song for her.

Now, Tessa was probably with Thomas. Whenever he thought of Thomas giving Tessa a kiss on the cheek, he was feeling weirdly angry. He was not a person to get angry and mad at these kind of situations, but being protective feels were coming and he could never resist them.

What if Thomas was to kiss her?

_Stop_ _it._

Will's relationships weren't important, because Tessa knew, he never loved anyone before. But Tessa- Tessa had not dated anyone before in her life, and if she was to date, then it was a really big deal.

He didn't want Thomas to be a big deal.

He stood up, and started walking to upstairs. "Hey, Cecy," he shouted gently. Cecily got out of her room. She had blue pajamas on, and those pajamas were making her eyes look even wider than they already were. She had the ruby red necklace on, the one Will gave to her. "What?"

Will looked timid. "I need your help about something."

Tessa knocked the door angrily. She wasn't mad at Magnus, though, but he was the only person Tessa could throw her anger at.

The door was open now, and in front of it, there was a really long, black but short haired, cat-eyed man. He had a sparkling purple pajama suit on. When he saw Tessa, he looked surprised. "Dear," he said. When they both looked at each other for a few more seconds, Magnus shivered and grinned at Tessa. "Come in, come in."

She was now used to this place, because Will and her always used to come to Magnus' when nobody was at their houses. And, the advantage of being with Magnus was that he was bisexual. Tessa was always more comfortable when she was with him, because in whatever she could say, Magnus'd never find anything bad.

His living room was not that big, because he was living in an expensive apartment. Places like these were always small. He really was in the heart of Victoria. Still, his sofas and stuff were really pretty. Two of the couches were purple, and the other two were white. Tessa sat on one of the purple ones. Magnus sat on the white one next to it. He held Tessa's hand. "What's it, love?"

Tessa was surprised that he was so calm. Usually, in situations like this, he was the first person to make it a big situation that is. "Well, actually, nothing happened," she said, trying to speak as calm as Magnus. "But the deal is, nothing happened. I came to you because you're the only one who can understand."

Magnus smiled. He dropped Tessa's hand, then stood up. "I know what your problem is, love. But first, a little coffee?"

Tessa grinned, even though she was thinking about how Magnus could ever know what the problem was. "I wouldn't say no to that."

"Wow," Cecily said, and even Will could hear her sarcasm. They were sitting on the brown couch. "You're into your _best_ _friend_?"

Will shook his head. "When you say it like that it sounds as if I'm a boy whore."

Cecily laughed. "No, I just- you never _like_ someone. I know that. Are you sure this isn't a come and go thing? Because if it is, Tessa is a perfect girl, and you shouldn't play with her, too."

Will swallowed. He knew that he had been feeling these things since she had this talk with Tessa in front of the library. But Tessa- Tessa would never someone like Will. He could be good-looking, yes, but he wasn't that of a good person. This things, what he was feeling for Tessa, started when she started flirting with Thomas. They started when Tessa started to be away from Will. When Will understood the absenceness of Tessa, he understood that he had things he was feeling about her.

"I need to think, Cecy." he said. "I just need to think a bit more about this all."

"I know what it is, love," Magnus said, looking deeply interested in the subject. Tessa looked curious. "Oh, you say so?"

Magnus grinned. He seemed like he loved how Tessa had this little sarcastic side. "It is Will, isn't it?"

The girl looked shocked. How could Magnus know that? Was it too obvious that she was into Will? "How did you know?"

Magnus' grin widened. "It's not impossible to see, dear. You sometimes lose yourself in looking at him as if he's a piece of art."

He really was, like a piece of art. His dark, ocean blue eyes, black, messy wavy hair, his pale, light skin. Also, he was tall, too. Almost the same height with Magnus, and Magnus was too tall.

Will was beautiful, and to look at him was like an honor. Until that time, she was seeing him as nothing more than a best friend, but now, she had this feels she couldn't hide.

"No I don't."

The man's yellow, cat eyes looked at Tessa's gray eyes. "You say so?"

"I came here to ask you what can I do about this, not to talk about how I like Will and more."

Magnus' expressions went serious. He put his coffee glass to the desk in front of the white couch. He held Tessa's hands. "Look, dear, if you want to forget about this feeling before it even starts burning, then I'm okay with that," he said, as if he was a psychologist. "But if you're open to any suggestions, I say you don't leave these feelings. Will- is a bright burning star. I've seen you youngins being so, so bright, but he's one of the brightests. He may be sarcastic, a little uncaring, but he isn't in reality. And I'm sure, he will like you back."

Tessa swallowed. She had seen Magnus being serious about situations, but even though in those situations, he had a little funny side. This time, he had no laughing mimics, and Tessa could look at him without any grin. Was he really serious? If she was to date Thomas, maybe she could forget about Will, because he was obviously not going to like her back. But if she tried, maybe, just maybe, he could like her back, too.

_Why_ _would_ _I_ _care_ _to_ _make_ _him_ _like_ _me_ _when_ _he_ _doesn't_ _even_ _see_ _me_ _when_ _I'm_ _almost_ _next_ _to_ _him?_

_Why_ _would_ _I_ _care_ _to_ _make_ _him_ _like_ _me_ _when_ _he_ _dates_ _girls,_ _makes_ _out_ _with_ _them_ _and_ _never_ _talks_ _to_ _me,_ _his_ _best_ _friend?_

_I_ _don't_ _have_ _to_ _do_ _that._ _This_ _will_ _only_ _give_ _me_ _suffer,_ _and_ _I_ _don't_ _need_ _anything_ _more_ _than_ _I_ _have_ _now._

_I_ _don't_ _want_ _to_ _want_ _Will,_ _even_ _though_ _I_ _want_ _him._

_I_ _want_ _to_ _know_ _how_ _long_ _can_ _I_ _stand_ _like_ _a_ _dynamite._

"Look, Magnus," she said, with the most sympathy she had. "I like Will, okay? I had not liked anyone before properly, not like this, but I do now." She swallowed. "But I don't want to. I don't want to like Will."

The other day, when Tessa woke up, she saw a sticky note on her desk next to her bed.

_Can_ _you_ _go_ _to_ _school_ _with_ _Will,_ _my_ _love?_ _I_ _really_ _need_ _to_ _leave_ _early._ _I_ _love_ _you._

_Mom_

She smiled at the sticky note, but she knew she wasn't going to go to school with Will. The last person she wanted to see today was him.

After getting ready in half an hour, she went out and started walking to school. It was fifteen minutes away by walk.

She had nothing to focus on whilst walking, because her phone was at Will's.

When she arrived to school, it was 8:35. The lessons were to begin in ten minutes, to she walked fast to greet the gang.

Everyone was there. She hugged Jem, Sophie, Gideon, Cecily and Gabriel. Will was sitting at the end. They both looked at each other, knowing that they were a bit cold now. "Morning," Tessa said, couldn't keep herself from being even a little nice. "Morning."

Tessa scratched her forehead. "My phone was with you?"

Will didn't smile. Or didn't grin. Today, he had this serious mimic and Tessa could see that he was going to be like this all day. "Here you go,"

"Thanks."

Everyone could feel the ice. Usually, the ones who made the gang laugh were Tessa and Will, and usually Will, but today, it was Will, and Tessa, who were making the gang nervous.

Tessa looked at her phone, and saw 17 non-replied message. _Wow,_ she thought. But not because she had recieved seventeen messages. _Will_ _didn't_ _look_ _at_ _any_ _of_ _them._ _He_ _knew_ _my_ _password,_ _though._

She opened the messages. They were all from Thomas.

_Tess,_ _where_ _are_ _you?_

_Hey_ _Tessa,_ _call_ _me_ _when_ _you_ _see_ _this._ _I_ _really_ _need_ _to_ _talk_ _to_ _you._

_Tess?_

_HEY!_

_Did_ _I_ _do_ _anything_ _wrong?_

The messages went on and on like these. Tessa didn't reply them, because she knew he was at school anyways, and she could talk to him in here. Then, she heard a voice coming sarcastically. "Worried about your boyfriend?"

Tessa looked up, and looked at Will, who had this really sarcastic face on. It was filled with anger, Tessa could see that. "What's your problem, Will?"

Will raised an eyebrow, acted like as if he was thinking. "Um, I don't know, really, maybe a guy named Thomas."

Tessa shook her head, she was laughing because of anger. How could he ever query her? How could he ever interfere? "We talked about this, Will. Don't open the same subject in front of everyone."

"Why wouldn't I? Aren't they _friends_?"

How did he become this person just in a day? Was this all Tessa's fault? When Tessa was to like someone, was this how Will was going to be? "He's not my _boyfriend_."

Will's mimics went from sarcastic to really surprised. He had no sarcasm left, all in a sudden he did become serious. "What?"

"You heard me," Tessa stood up, holding her back bag. "He's not my boyfriend."

"What did you do yesterday, then?"

Tessa raised an eyebrow. She looked at everyone else, and everyone else were looking at her, waiting for her movement. She didn't care about it, Magnus'd be cool about it. "Ask it to Magnus later."

Sophie stood up, too, because they had the same lesson together. When they got inside the school building, Sophie started talking. She was scratching her wound on her cheek. "What was that all about?"

Tessa laughed. "He thinks Thomas isn't good for me or something like that."

Sophie laughed, too. Luckily, she didn't understand anything.

The whole day of school went on like that. She was with Sophie and Cecily all day. Because Cecily knew that they were resentful to each other, she tried to make everything back okay, but Tessa understood that, and she didn't buy it.

She saw Will getting out of the Mathematics campus. Tessa was in front of the Social Studies campus, and they both saw each other. Will had a brotherly meaning on his face, and even though Tessa wanted to hug him, smile at him and talk to him, she knew that it was wrong. Liking your best friend since I-don't-know-when was wrong. So she shook her head with disappointed face, then kept on walking. There was a white Cadillac in front of her. Will was still watching at Tessa.

Thomas got out of the Cadillac. "You didn't reply my texts," he said. Tessa was just about to answer him, opened her mouth, but Thomas didn't let her. He edited his light brown hair, then opened the door for Tessa. The girl behind at Will, who was really far away, but still watching on them. Just in two days, how did they become this? She already missed him. The idea of liking Will could be wrong, yes, but the idea of being away from him was so painful.

Tessa got in, and looked outside the window. She was seeing Will, but she was missing him, too. All in a sudden, she missed about how they'd marathon Charles Dickens' books, how they'd watch romantic movies Tessa loved, how they'd race on finishing a pizza the fastest. Thomas was a perfect boy, a really good one, but he wasn't Will.

Magnus was right. She'd prefer to be with him as best friends than to be away from him forever. She was now the one who was estranging Will, and she was feeling hurt.

Even not as "valentines", the idea of Will and Tessa could be a better thing than the idea of Thomas and Tessa.

**(in here, it now happens to be Will's POV)**

Will got out of the Mathematics campus. There was the big garden, and next to it, there was the Social Studies campus. He saw Tessa getting out of there, then stopped. Tessa saw him, too. The boy didn't know what to do. He wanted to apologize her, he wanted to apologize her for being such a dick head and interfering to her love life, but he didn't. He just stood there. Then, Tessa shook her head, disappointed. _Disappointed,_ he thought. _Damn_ _it._ All this time, she knew that Will was worth caring for. All this time she loved him as a best friend because he was actually worth it. And now, she was disappointed. Will now was losing her best friend because of some douche bag named Thomas.

By thinking of Thomas, he saw Thomas, who was getting out of a white Cadillac. He said something to Tessa, and didn't let her talk. Will watched them carefully.

He was so far away, so he couldn't hear what they talked about, but it was a small conversation, so it was impossible that he missed so many things.

Tessa got in the car, then looked at Will again. _I_ _know_ _that_ _look,_ he thought. _She_ _misses_ _me._

_Then_ _why_ _didn't_ _she_ _talk_ _to_ _me_ _the_ _whole_ _day?_


	5. The Fortune Telling

**Hi again. So, I do put lines when I go from Tessa's POV to Will's, but when I publish the fanfic, it becomes unseen. So, I will put warnings when I go from one's POV to another's.**

**Thank you for reading, this is a small chapter, but still, have fun!**

**Lots love, C.P.**

"I just got in the car," Tessa said, looking at Thomas who was driving. "But you're going to drop me off at home, right?"

Thomas grinned, he was still focused on the road. "No, no of course," he said. His green eyes now looked at Tessa for just a second. "I know how you like reading books. We're going to a book store."

Tessa shook her head, but her face was thankful. "We really don't need that, Thomas, thank you."

Thomas didn't reply her, he had this happy face and he seemed like he was not going to let anyone ruin this. He really was a good boy, he was always happy. Tessa had not seen him being upset or angry before, ever.

**(Will's POV)**

"Why were you resentful with Tessa today?" Gideon asked, his books in his arms, walking through the empty, treeful road. Will was looking blankly on the road, he heard what Gideon said, but he didn't want to reply. "Will?"

Will used to tell his secrets to no one. Not even Cecily, not Gideon or Jem or anyone else. He used to keep them inside of him, because the man who killed his older sister, Ella, told him that :

_If_ _you_ _ever_ _love_ _someone_ _or_ _if_ _someone_ _ever_ _really_ _loves_ _you,_ _then_ _I_ _will_ _kill_ _them,_ _too._

Will knew, that that man was a psychologic maniac, but still, that scared him at the age of twelve. He had this scare of the man, whenever he thought he liked Tessa, he was looking around if anyone was there.

"I think Thomas isn't good for her." Will said. Gideon shook his head, laughing. "Are you the one to decide that, brother? She thinks no girl is good for you, still you make out with them."

_He's_ _right,_ Will thought, _who_ _am_ _I_ _to_ _interfere?_

Will decided to change the subject immediately. "So.." He said, grinning. "What's up with you and Sophie?"

Gideon's face fell. He swallowed. "You know, we get into the same cooking lesson?"

Will nodded. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," he repeated. "For the last two weeks, I had been wanting her to make me cookies, and I was saying how much I loved her cookies. Yesterday, she said, "How can you finish the cookies so fast?" and I said I was a fast eater. The other lesson, she had to take my cooking list from my bag to show it to Mr. Morgenstern. And, guess what?"

Will laughed, he liked how the story continued. "What?"

Gideon looked disappointed but funny. "She saw that all of the cookies were in my back bag. She shouted at me that I was doing all this to get to her. Well, yes, I was doing it for her, but why did she even got that mad?"

Will shook his head, in a way of saying that he was not understanding women. "I'm sure he likes you, bro," he said. "She's just... Ugh, I don't know. Women are difficult."

**(Tessa's POV)**

They got in to a close Waterstones. It was not that big, but Tessa knew the place of the classics and young adults, so she walked there. Thomas followed her.

When she took A Tale of Two Cities, her favourite, she sat on the reading couch. Thomas sat on the other couch, took it next to Tessa's couch. He looked at the book's title. "What is that one about?"

Tessa looked surprised. "You don't know A Tale of Two Cities?"

Thomas grinned. "Oh," he said. "Is that a bad thing?"

Tessa shook her head, missing Will. Will knew every book inside the place, yet he was an uncaring, sarcastic looking boy. Thomas looked like as if he was the most sensitive boy ever, but he didn't even know A Tale of Two Cities.

She told him what the book was about. "That's old. And depressing. I don't think you should read stuff like that, Tess."

She felt annoyed when he said "Tess" to her. "I like it, and that what actually matters to me, Thomas."

The whole afternoon went like that. When they were to leave the book store, Tessa looked at Thomas and shook her head. "Thank you for asking, it's just my mom texted me and she will take me. See you tomorrow."

When Thomas heard the word, mom, he didn't insist and left the book store. Actually Tessa's mom was still at work, and Tessa was alone now. She knew who to call.

The phone ringed for three times. "Yes?"

Tessa swallowed. "Will?"

Girl could feel him grin. "Oh, you know my name. How nice."

Tessa smiled, too. "Can you take me from Waterstones? Closest one?"

Will's voice was now worried. "Did Thomas leave you?"

"Yes," she said. "No, no. Not like that. I told him my mom was going to take me."

Will laughed. "So you saw how normal boys were like, and you missed me a lot, huh?"

"Shut up."

He laughed again. He made Tessa smile. "I'll be there in five."

When Will came, he got out of the car, and saw Tessa, standing in front of the doors of Waterstones. She ran to Will and hugged him, made him carry her. She hugged him from his waist, and Will hugged her from Tessa's shoulders. "I'm sorry, Tess," he said. They both looked at each other, they were so close now. "I'm sorry, I got involved in everything. If you like Thomas, then-"

"What?" Tessa started laughing. "There's nothing between me and Thomas. He doesn't even know what A Tale of Two Cities is!"

Will started laughing. Tessa was now on feet, and she got into the car. When Will got in, too, they went.

"What are we going to do about Thomas, then? Because he obviously likes you lots."

Tessa smiled. He was still thinking of Thomas. Even though it was brotherly, she liked how Will was jealous of her. "I've missed you, Will."

Will looked at her. "We didn't talk just for two days, Tess. I've missed you, too."

"No, not like that," Tessa spoke. She was talking about the month of June. "We hadn't been talking properly since... Since that match day in June."

Will looked upset. "It's all my fault."

"Well, to be honest, yes it was." Tessa laughed. What was Tatiana doing now, anyways? She didn't know. Today, after being dishonest with each other for months, they were honest with each other. Tessa knew this wasn't going to last so long. Thomas was to call her again, and he was to want her to hang out with him. And Will... Will was going to keep on making out with girls. Still, today, there was nothing such as that.

They came to Will's favourite place. It was inside the Hyde Park, but nobody usually came here, so it always was Tessa and Will only in here. The place was full of grass, it was like an edited garden. There were orchides, roses and much more. And in front of the grass, there was the lake. "I've missed this place," Tessa said, looking at Will, who was lying next to her. When she saw him lying, she did lay down and came closer to him. They were next to each other, and Tessa's arm was touching Will's.

"How lovely," They heard a voice behind them, and they both went straight up. Will was in front of Tessa, as if he was protecting her. Tessa was a little left, trying to mean she didn't need Will's protection. But... It was just a woman. Her hair was wrapped up with a fortune teller headgear. "Lovely girl," she said. "Come closer."

Tessa walked to the woman. Will was calling Tessa. "Tess, what are you doing, she might be-"

"Shut up, William, she's a fortune teller."

The woman looked at Will, grinning in a funny way. She had light skin, black eyes, but non-dangerous ones, and thin lips. She held Tessa's hands and closed her eyes. Both Tessa and Will weren't believeing in stuff like that, but still, it was worth a try. "I see someone," the woman said. Will made an annoyed noise. "Do you know anyone who was two L's in his name, dear?"

Tessa, all in a sudden, blushed. She looked at Will, but his face was shocked, grinning. When he saw Tessa blushed, he winked at her, trying to understand it as a joke. "Yes?"

The woman smiled, her eyes were closed. "You and him will have a long, long journey that is. Oh-" The woman closed her mouth with one hand. The other was still on Tessa's. "He will be your first," she said. "In every way."

Tessa held her hand back. She looked at the woman with such an anger, then turned back. She didn't even thank her, which, was a thing she usually did. "Let me take your hand, son," the woman said, looking at Will. Will looked at Tessa as if he was asking if she was okay with it, but Tessa was looking into the lake, her face was not being seen by Will.

The woman held Will's hand, then closed her eyes. "Oh," she said. "You're a naughty boy. I see someone. Not a letter, but the character. Nice girl, will get you on the right road. You will understand who she is in a week."

The woman opened her eyes, and looked both at Will and Tessa. Will thanked her and smiled. This wasn't a thing he usually did, but he looked strucked. He got five pounds and gave it to the woman. The woman looked at Tessa again before leaving. "What were your names, dears?"

Tessa didn't answer. On the other hand, Will spoke. "It's William," he said. "This is Theresa."

Tessa looked at the woman and couldn't keep herself from smiling at her. "How lovely names." the woman said. Then she turned back, and started walking away slowly. When she left, Tessa found the courage to look at Will. "I think we should leave, too."

Will grinned. "She said she saw a name with two L's."

"Yes," Tessa said, then put a sarcastic smile on her face. "And she said he will be my first. So it's not you."

Will looked like as if he got a punch in his stomach. Still, he liked this conversation and he went on. "We'll see. If I'll be your first, what will you do?"

Tessa laughed. "You _won't_ be my first, Will."

Will shook his head. "Okay, I give you time until may. If I won't be your first then, then you can mock me every day."

Tessa's laugh was so loud. Her stomach hurt. "Are you being serious?"

He had a grin. He was assertive."Yes I am indeed, Tess."

"Okay then," she said. "But I had not even kissed anyone before yet, how do you think you will get to me and be my first?"

Will's grin widened. Tessa couldn't understand if he was still mocking her or he went serious. She tried to think of it as a joke. "Things can change, Tess."


	6. Who Is Axel Mortmain?

Will and Tessa were good. They weren't in a relationship of course, but they had a thing.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday went so fast. Tessa saw Thomas for just a time, but they didn't say anything to each other. It was not just Tessa who didn't want to talk, but there was something different in Thomas, too. Tessa didn't care about that and kept on living her life. And weirdly, that four days, Will didn't talk to any girl other that Sophie, Cecily and Tessa at school. And some random girls in his Biology classes to get the homework sheets. Tessa was impressed by that, honestly.

When he came to Tessa's house that Saturday, she went really surprised. She wasn't beautiful that day, like how she was not beautiful every Saturday. She had no make up on, and her hair was like as if she touched a wet wall plug. But still, Will was inelaborate that day, too, so Tessa was a little more comfortable.

Elizabeth Gray usually used to stay at home on Saturdays and Sundays, but today she had this rush, that made Tessa wonder what she was up to. "Mom?" She spoke, standing in front of the wood stairs, looking at her mom, who was getting the meal ready for Will and Tessa in the kitchen. Will was in the living room, putting the DVD to the DVD player. "Yes, love?" Elizabeth asked, whilst putting the elegant plates on the dining table. Tessa started playing with her hair. "Why are you going to work today?"

Elizabeth was just about to respond, but Will didn't let her. Tessa heard his thick voice coming from the living room. "My dad went to work today, too. Is there anything wrong in the place?"

Tessa saw her mom smiling, shaking her head. "No, love," she shouted to make her voice be heard by Will. "It's just that, this Axel Mortmain man, is honestly, kicking our asses lately."

Tessa's mother and Will's father were working in the same place. They were really good friends ever since when they were small children. Tessa had never seen their work going bad, until now. Elizabeth always used to count the international income of their work, and report it to Edmund, who happened to be the second manager of their job, and Will's father. They were always good. What did this Axel Mortmain man do to beat them?

Will came next to Tessa when his job was done in the living room. "Who is this Axel Mortmain anyways? And what did he do to make you go to work even in a Saturday morning?"

Elizabeth got out of the kitchen. The meal was ready, and it started to smell delicious.

"He now has our best editor. They were secretly working together ever since Benedict got the job, which is two years ago. Benedict had been giving information about our works to that Mortmain man ever since that day."

_Benedict_ _Lightwood?_ Tessa thought.

"Benedict _Lightwood?_" Will asked, then put a face filled with shock. Elizabeth nodded. "Yes, dear."

Tessa and Will looked at each other, then didn't hold Elizabeth too long in the house, for the bad guys were waiting her and Will's father Edmund to fight.

When the two got to be alone, they sat on the three-people-filling scarlet sofa in Tessa's living room. They opened the movie, New Year's Eve, then started watching it. This was one of Tessa and Will's favourite Christmas movies. There was Home Alone in the first place, A Christmas Carrol in the second place, then this. Still, both weren't focused on the movie. They were thinking about how Gideon, Gabriel and Tatiana's father did this.

After a few minutes, Tessa took the DVD player's remote control, then pressed the _stop_ button. "How did Benedict Lightwood betray our parents? They were really good friends."

Will nodded. He loved Gideon so much, even though he used to dislike everyone around him. He liked Gabriel, too, even though he used to make fun of him all the time. He didn't like Tatiana that much, even though he dated her, he used to think she had this annoying behaviors. Still, the Lightwood boys were nice, gentle and kind. They were not bad. But their father... _Didn't_ _he_ _ever_ _think_ _of_ _his_ _own_ _children's_ _reputation?_

"I don't know, Tess." he said, looking at the ground, blankly. The stuff to think about was now more than one. Tessa looked at him, smiling. She was now going to change the subject, because her head started to ache. "When will Sophie arrive at yours?" Sophie was going to work full-day today. Such a hard worker she was, with such ambition. Tessa, as her close friend, was really proud of her. Her family abandoned her when she was really small, and Edmund and Elizabeth's friend, Charlotte Fairchild, found her lying in front of a building with a scar, still bleeding on her face. Charlotte took her, and made her stay in her home for a long time. She stayed there as a guest for years, but when she entered the age of sixteen, which was this year, she started to work in the Herondales house part-time. "I guess an hour later. I sent Gideon, because nobody's in the house."

Tessa smiled. "Where's Cecily?"

Will smiled, too. Actually, he grinned. "She's at school."

Tessa looked surprised now. "It's Saturday?"

"I know," his grin widened, he looked proud of her sister in a funny way. "She'll watch the football match. Gabriel's in the game, too."

Tessa started laughing. She laughed about how Will didn't care, too. He was not like a usual brother. "What's it between that two?"

Will grinned. "They like each other. Lightworm is a piece of a worm, you know, but if Cecy likes him, what can I say?"

Tessa looked at the ground now, thought how kind of a good person Will was in reality. And what he was saying right now was right. If someone liked someone, then what was there left to do? Liking Will could be painful, but to have a peace treaty with those feelings maybe could make everything better. "Yes," she said, probably thirty of forty seconds later. "Now it means that Gideon and Sophie will be alone in the house."

Will laughed. He nodded, then looked at Tessa. His face was peaceful. _How_ _beautiful,_ Tessa thought. _And_ _weird._

His sharp face was now soft, as if it was cotton candy. His sarcastic looking eyebrows and eyes were now calm, and his ocean dark blue, always meaningful eyes were now meaning to say nothing but some peace.

* * *

><p>Gideon looked at Sophie. She wasn't even looking at him, because she was all focused on cleaning the place. The boy didn't stop staring.<p>

A few minutes later, Sophie couldn't handle it and she stopped the vaccum cleaner. She looked at Gideon now. "What do you want, Gideon, cookies?"

Gideon smiled, but shook his head. "I was thinking about how beautiful you are."

His green, deep eyes now looked into Sophie's and they sharpened her heart. She didn't want to buy it, but she was buying it. "Look, Gideon," she said, then came closer to Gideon, and sat next to him. "Do you see this scar?"

Gideon looked at the place on her face where she was touching with her forefinger. "Yes."

"Yes," Sophie repeated. That reminded Gideon of how he used to repeat it when Will said "yes" to him. "That was made by a man, when I was thirteen. He tried to rape me and I did resist it. When he couldn't do it, he said if I wasn't going to be his, then I couldn't be anyones, so he did that. _That_ _is_ _enough_ _to_ _me,_ Gideon. _I_ _don't_ _need_ _another_ _scar._"

Gideon shook his head. Then gently, with such a care of trying hard not to make Sophie run away from him, he held her hand. As if her hand was a fragile thing. "I like you, Sophie." he said. "I like how you are brave, hard working, ambitious and loving at the same time." His words were like flowing water, coming naturally from inside him. Sophie understood that he was real. He was real. "And believe it or not, even though you are the most beautiful female I have ever seen in my life, I don't like you for your looks."

That made Sophie laugh a little.

* * *

><p>It had been two hours now since they started the movie again. It was now the end credits scene. For that, Will stood up. "Let's call Elizabeth if they're all right."<p>

Tessa nodded, then got her phone out. She called her mom immediately, then waited for her to respond.

"The person you have called can not be reached at the moment. Please try again later."

She looked at Will, then shook her head. "It's off. But it can't be. She got it out of the charger when she was about to leave."

Will looked suspicious. Tessa thought of bad things, but no. _No,_ she talked to herself inside. _Don't_ _be_ _stupid._ _It's_ _one_ _of_ _the_ _best_ _foreign_ _trade_ _sectors_ _of_ _England._ _Nothing_ _bad_ _like_ _that_ _can_ _happen_ _to_ _them._ Then Will got his phone out, pressed his father's numbers, then put the phone next to his ear. One ring. Two rings. Three.

He opened it.

"Son?" Edmund's voice was as thick as Will's, but it was more manly. Will turned on the speaker for Tessa to hear him, too. "Dad? Where are you?"

"I'm working, son," he responded. Will looked at Tessa, he looked worried. They both knew Edmund used to be much more kind and funny. But now, his voice was cold as ice. "What happened to Mrs. Gray's phone, dad? Is she all right, too?"

Edmund made an annoyed noise. "Promise me you two will not try to do anything mad."

Tessa and Will looked at each other again. Then they both said, "We promise." at the same second. "Elizabeth's phone got stolen by Benedict and Axel's men. You both know, she has two phones. One for to reach work people, one to reach family. They took her to-reach-the-family phone."

Will swallowed. He was looking at Tessa, but Tessa was looking blankly to the ground. "Why would they steal Elizabeth's family phone?"

"We think," Edmund said, then swallowed. "That he may attend to try to hurt Theresa. Because he knows Elizabeth is the best editor, he may attend to try to hurt Theresa and force Elizabeth to quit her job."

Will closed the phone, without replying. His perception stopped, his eyes were only seeing Tessa. Love life was different. Tessa could date anyone she wanted, but this? This was work life, and he was not going to watch Tessa being torn apart in this because of his own dad and Tessa's own mother. "Will," Tessa was saying, holding Will's hands. She wasn't looking worried. "Look at me."

Will looked at her, listened to her. "Don't try to do stupid things, okay?" she was saying. "I can protect my own self. You know I hate it when you try to protect me."

Will let go of her hands. "And I hate it when you say this. Am I not your best friend, Tessa?" _Or_ _more?_

"Yes you are of course, William. That has nothing to do with-"

_Then_ _lean_ _on_ _me._

"Then let me protect you." His dark blue ocean eyes were back, and they were meaning so many things. He took a deep breath. "I promise I won't do anything. I just want to drive you to school, and from school. Deal?"

Tessa smiled. She now looked agreed, and peaceful. Will wasn't going to let this beautiful and happy face fade from her.

Tessa turned back now, walking upstairs, to her room, to get a shower probably. Will stood there on the sofa. "Deal!" he heard Tessa shouting. _Deal_.


	7. All Tangled

**_Hi everyone. I apologize that I couldn't post at all this week, but I was so busy studying for my exams, I couldn't even think of anything else. But, the week is now almost over, I'm back! The reason of that this chapter's name is "All Tangled" is that things are now getting tangled. In the real story, as we all know, the real situation is Axel Mortmain. Like I did mention even before writing the first chapter, this story was not going to be TID of course, but it was going to have related stuff. This is a romance/friendship/drama story, and Tessa&Will will eventually get together, but they will see the worst of the pain. So, what I'm really trying to say is that I will try to make you guys feel the pain, because everyone knows, we are here to feel the pain._**

**_I will write about Tessa and Will the way I love how Tessa and Will are. And I am so thankful, grateful and everything because of so many people liking my fanfiction series. It means a lot._**

**_Thank you for reading again!_**

**_Love, C.P._**

_Will was careful._

_Tessa was now in the shower next to the boy's room, and that meant that Will could carefully look into her bag. _

_Sometimes, once a month or twice, Tessa used to stay at Will's, because Elizabeth was going to other countries for work. This was one of those times, when Elizabeth went to Amsterdam that morning, and since then, Tessa was at Will's._

_The boy looked into Tessa's silver coloured big bag. Because Tessa loved showering a lot, she was staying in there for more than half an hour. So, this was an advantage._

_Will, with a reason he didn't know, wanted to know if Tessa did bring any fancy under wears. He saw the small deodorant, two not-fancy black and scarlet t-shirts for Wednesday and Thursday, one pajama suit, which was not fancy at all, and two under wears. One of them was candy pink, and it had the word PINK on it with the colour gold. The other one was laced and green but it was like a boxer, so Will shook his head with disappointment. He was still not sure about why he was disappointed over the fact that his best friend did not bring any fancy under wears to his house. It was Tessa, not some whore coming over to Will's house._

_Still, he couldn't stop himself from being disappointed, so he gave up and put her stuff back in the bag. He went back to his big, white bed and did lay on the right side of it. He waited for Tessa for more than half an hour, then when she came out of the bathroom with her bathrobe, Will swallowed unwillingly. Tessa didn't even look at the boy, because she was so busy trying to find her underwear in the bag. "The green one's at the bottom," Will said, looking at the girl. Tessa looked at Will, then made a funny-angry face. "Did you look at my stuff, William?"_

_**Oh, **__he thought. __**She called me William. She called me William.**_

_That made Will too excited. These thoughts were kind of ones that he was not able to know beautifully about. "Maybe yes, or maybe I'm just a psychic." _

_Tessa laughed, she wasn't annoyed._

_Fifteen minutes later, she was not with pajamas, and Will was still on the same place of the bed. "You can sleep," Tessa said. "You don't have to wait for me."_

_Will grinned. "I'm not sleepy, Tess. No problem."_

_Tessa shrugged, then went to close the lights. _**Doesn't she feel anything? **_Will thought. But how could she? Will was her best friend. _**No, **_he said to himself inside, _**I'm the one who shouldn't think anything. What the bloody hell is wrong with me?**

_He stood up, and started walking to Tessa._

**What the hell are you doing, Will? Control yourself.**

_He was now out of control. His brain was only seeing and understanding the word TESSA and it just happened all in a sudden. Why was he walking towards to Tessa now? _**She always comes over, **_he thought. _**Why now?**

_He was now right behind her. Tessa turned off the lights, then turned back. When she saw Will right behind herself, she first shivered, then grinned. "What happened, William?"_

_It was all dark. Still, they both could see each other's eyes, because one of them's were blue, a bright, but also a dark one, and the other ones' eyes were gray. _

"_Will?" she asked again, this time, her voice was shaking a little. She wasn't afraid, but the situation was awkward. Will looked at her pajamas, then thought how cute she was. How beautiful she was._

_He put his left hand on Tessa's neck's left side. They both looked at each other. Will was just about to say something. "Tess,"_

_Tessa looked at him, wondering. Then, all in a sudden, she started shouting. "Wake up!" she said. Will didn't respond. "WAKE UP!"_

He was sweating. He used not to sweat, not ever. He looked around, and saw Cecily standing in front of himself. She had her black, long hair free and her blue dress looking stunning on her as always. "It's nine!"

Will took a deep breath. He was still in the shock of the dream. His hair was wet like as if it rained outside, and Will was there. His blue eyes were looking tired, even though he was now awakened from a nine hour sleep. "What?" he finally asked, then tried to look at Cecily. Cecily was angry. "It's nine in the morning. The lessons began. I've been trying to wake you up since half past eight."

Will stood up, then opened his room's door for Cecily. "I'll be downstairs in fifteen."

* * *

><p>When he came downstairs, all ready, he looked at his phone. There were three messages.<p>

_You_ _have_ _three_ _messages_ _from_ _Tess_

_8:09_ _-_ _"Hey,_ _are_ _you_ _going_ _to_ _take_ _me?"_

_8:12_ _-_ _"Wiiiiiilllll?!_ _Are_ _you_ _even_ _awake?"_

_8:20_ _-_ _"Forget_ _it,_ _I'm_ _with_ _Gideon_ _and_ _Sophie!_ _Write_ _me_ _when_ _you_ _come_ _to_ _school."_

Will thought about the girl's safety. She was safe with Gideon and Sophie of course, but what about that Axel situation? The only ones to know that about the situation were Will and Tessa, and the only one who was good enough to protect Tessa was Will.

But now, he didn't want to be with Tessa anymore. He didn't want to be close to her, too. These feelings he had for her, they were dangerous. He could protect her from away, too. Because from now on, if he was to stay close to her as always, everything could be ruined. Will knew. **If I keep staying close to her as always, I might not be able to hold myself away. I don't want to bore her.**

* * *

><p>They got in the car. Cecily was in a rush. "Be fast, Will."<p>

Will looked at her, smiling. "Are you going to meet with Lightworm again?"

Cecily sighed. "Don't call him Lightworm," she said. "It's heart-breaking."

"Oh," Will replied, right at the second Cecy said something. "I didn't know he had a heart. Sorry, love."

* * *

><p>Finally, when they made it to the school, Cecily got out of the car immediately. Will checked on her until she hugged Gabriel, then after waving a hand to them, he started walking towards to Thomas, whom he saw a second ago. "Did you see Tessa?"<p>

Thomas was cold. Afraid. "Nope."

Will raised an eyebrow. Even though he didn't like him anymore, he knew, Thomas wasn't like this. "What's going on?"

Thomas shook his head, then tried hard to smile at Will. "I have to go. See you in class."

He left. Will didn't look behind, and with an awkward, shocked face on himself, he kept on walking on the school garden. When he saw Tessa and Tatiana talking, he started running.

"Promise me," Tessa was saying. They both didn't see Will there. The garden was crowded. "Will won't know about this."

Tatiana made a bitch grin. Will was hating on her, how could he ever date with someone like that? "What's it between you and Will, anyways? Why are you protecting him?"

When he heard the word _protect_, he understood, that this was about the Axel Mortmain situation.

Tessa made an unsure face, swallowed, then looked into Tatiana's blankly-looking eyes. "Because he's my best friend," she said. Will looked down, he felt ashamed for seeing that dream last night. And feeling happy about it after waking up. "Just- don't tell him anything, okay? That's between you, me and Mortmain."

_**Mortmain? **_Will thought. How was she saying the man's name so easily? Did she even know her? If she knew her, when did she meet her? Or, most importantly, why was she talking to Tatiana, and telling her to not to tell anything to Will?

He came next to Tessa. When Tessa and Tatiana finally saw him, Tatiana made a fake cough. "Look who's here," she said. Tessa raised an eyebrow, then stared at Tatiana with an anger on her face. "Don't you dare," she said. Will looked at the girls, and tried to make a dumb face. "What's going on?"

Tessa looked at the boy, then hugged him. That hug made Will feel different. He didn't know what he was feeling, or why he was feeling it now, but he was feeling it. He hugged her, too, even though he was wanting not to see her today.

They started walking away from Tatiana, and when they were away enough, Will looked at Tessa. "What is going on, Tess?"

Tessa looked at the boy. She was acting well, Will had to admit that. "Nothing, William."

The boy sighed. "I heard your secret chat with Tatiana."

Tessa looked down on the ground, then closed her eyes, sadly. Will heard her saying, "Fuck it," quietly. When she looked back at Will, her face was expressionless. Again. "It's..." She stuttered. "It's nothing. We're late to class, William." She blushed. Will couldn't understand anything, but now he did find a purpose, and that purpose was to learn what Tessa was up to. "We can talk about this later."

It was the first time that Will saw Tessa being so desperate like that. He knew, she used to hate Tatiana. And he knew, she'd never ever go talk to her if there wasn't an important situation going on.

He was to learn it.

But whilst walking with her to the Mathematics Campus, he couldn't stop himself from thinking, _**How am I going to learn what the bloody hell's going on?**_


	8. Tessa

**Hi everyone. It's been a long, long time, I know.**

**I apologize for not publishing lately, but it was my exams month, and most of you know the pain of it.**

**Thank you for your beautiful reviews by the way, I am truly amazed by how you like my story. **

**And, about the Jem subject, I truly am sorry. I love Jem so much, and one day, after this story ends, which has months and months, I want to write a Jessa fanfiction story, too. But in this story, Jem has no bigger place than a good friend of Will's. He will have scenes, but the scenes will include nothing more than some talks about love with Will. **

**This and the previous chapter are actually the same day, but this is Tessa's point of view, and a bit more. **

**Thank you for reading.**

**Love, C.P.**

Tessa definitely was not okay. She wasn't sleeping anymore, and instead, she was watching outside of her window at nights. It had been almost a week since she had received the threats, and ever since then, she was not okay. She didn't want for Will to get involved, because God knew, if Will was to be hurt, too, she'd have nothing else to lose.

She was not falling a sleep on her bed now. She was sitting on her sofa in her room, and she was bending her head on her shoulder. That was also making her have a stiff neck, but it was not mattering anymore. She was thinking of ways to get to Benedict Lightwood or Axel Mortmain, and the only thing coming to her mind was Tatiana Lightwood. She didn't like Tatiana Lightwood.

_I'd_ _rather_ _kill_ _myself_ _then_ _to_ _talk_ _to_ _Tatiana_ _about_ _any_ _of_ _this._

Still, there were no other ways. She had to talk to Tatiana about her father's betrayal, and how Tessa was threatened. She was going to ask her if she could waste time with Will these few weeks. She knew she was going through to fire with fuel on her hands, but there was nothing else to do. It was time for Tessa to protect Will now. She was not going to be a girly-shy Tessa.

* * *

><p>She wore a black t-shirt and a pair of dark green skinny jeans. Then, after having breakfast and doing her morning routine, she texted Will. She had to stay away, but she was going to do it after seeing him in the morning. It was not going to look awkward, because they talked about it, and Will was going to drop her off to school for these few weeks. And, as another reason, Elizabeth was not home, too.<p>

"Hey, are you going to take me?"

Then she went out. She was sure, Will was probably on the way or getting ready to take Tessa. He would never leave her alone. But after a few minutes, she felt anxious, and texted him again.

"Wiiiiiilllll?! Are you even awake?"

She did not take a reply again. She was waiting, waiting and waiting, but there were no replies from the boy. _That's_ _it,_ she thought. For the first time, she knew, he wasn't going to come. She wasn't upset or anything, because she knew about how he was asleep, too.

The only matter bumping her head was school. Because now, she had to walk all the way to school.

She started walking. The weather was cold, but she had her coat on, so she wasn't feeling the cold.

Walking through the street which had many yellow leafage, she saw them flying all around the place because of the wind. The wind was happening because of a car coming closer to Tessa.

She looked back at the car. For a second, she felt her heart going down because of thinking it could be Axel Mortmain's men. But no. It was a red Cadillac, which had Gideon Lightwood and Sophie Collins inside. Gideon's face was glad in an unusual way. Sophie was happy, too, which was not a usual thing either.

The boy stopped his car next to Tessa, then lowered his window. His blonde hair was a bit longer now. "Are you alone?" he asked. Tessa nodded. "Yeah, I guess Will fell asleep." Right after saying that, she felt bad. Will wasn't her anything, so he didn't have to take care of Tessa. She didn't want for the two to see them like that. "Do you want a ride, Tessie?" Sophie asked, then winked. That wink meant so many things, like expressing how Gideon and Sophie were dating now. Tessa smiled at that, and winked back. Then, opening the back door of the car, she got her phone out of her pocket to text Will. "Yes, thanks guys." she said whilst going in.

"Forget it, I'm with Gideon and Sophie! Write me when you come to school."

* * *

><p>When they arrived, she got out of the car immediately, and hugged Gideon and Sophie. "Thank you so much guys for dropping me off, too, but I really need to go."<p>

The two didn't say anything, and after hugging, Tessa left to find Tatiana.

The big schoolyard was crowded like always, but Tessa saw Tatiana from meters and meters away. She had her brown hair made, and had a red, not really a school kind of a dress, and high heels which Tessa herself could never walk with when on her.

"Tatiana!" She shouted. They had been knowing each other ever since childhood, but they didn't like each other. At all. When Tatiana saw Tessa calling for her, she understood that there was a matter. She looked into her eyes, and turned back to her two blonde friends. "Wait for me."

She came closer to Tessa. She looked so comfortable with those heels, and Tessa thought about how that was even possible. Then she looked deeply in the girl's eyes, and tried to smile. "Hi."

Tatiana grinned with a foxy face. "Hi?"

Tessa touched her hair. "I wanted to talk to you about something."

"I'm listening?"

The girl took Tatiana's arm, then walked through to the bench. They sat, then she looked to the girl again. "I guess as the oldest of the siblings, unlike your brothers, you know what is happening between your father and me?"

Tatiana grinned again. She tried to look like a dumb girl who knew nothing. "What do you mean?"

"Don't lie to me, Tatiana. I know that you know the companionship going on between your father and Axel Mortmain."

Tatiana was still grinning. She had no face of an emotional one. Her face was looking like as if she was an expressionless pig. She took a deep breath. "Let's say I do know all of this," Her voice was full of sarcasm. "What will you want from me?"

Tessa took a deep breath. "I don't want anything really serious from you, Tatiana, don't worry," she said. Her chin was shaking now. "I just don't want for Will to get involved in any of this. I just- You still are into Will, yes? I want you to date him."

Tatiana's eyes were now shining. It was as if glitter was all around her, and a beautiful party had just begun. She waited for a few minutes like this, then went normal. She looked right into Tessa's eyes. "Not that I like him as much as I did before, but I accept. You want for me to waste time with him, yeah?"

Tessa stood up. "Yes."

* * *

><p>They started walking. The yard was a little less crowded than it was ten minutes ago."Promise me," Tessa said, looking around."Will won't know about this."<p>

Tatiana made a grin. She looked sarcastic, and by seeing that, Tessa got that she was going to say insulting about her and Will. "What's it between you and Will, anyways? Why are you protecting him?"

Tessa made an unsure face, swallowed, then looked into Tatiana's without-seeing eyes. "Because he's my best friend," she said. "Just- don't tell him anything, okay? That's between you, me and Mortmain." Tessa knew that Tatiana was going to tell all these to Mortmain and her own father, Benedict, but that was not important. The important thing was for them to know that Will wasn't involved in this. If they wanted for Elizabeth to fall down from her job, they had a deal with Tessa and Elizabeth, not Will or anyone else.

Then, all in a sudden, she saw Will standing next to her. When Tatiana saw the boy, too, she made a fake cough. "Look who's here," she said. Tessa raised an eyebrow, then stared at Tatiana with an anger on her face. "Don't you dare," she said. Will looked at the girls with a dumb face on. "What's going on?"

Tessa looked at the boy, then hugged him. She hugged him fast, without feeling anything, until Will hugged her, too. Without a reason, when Tessa felt his hands on her waist, she felt even more awkward.

Tessa took his wrist, then started walking away from Tatiana without saying goodbye. And when they were away enough, Will looked at Tessa. "What is going on, Tess?"

Tessa looked at the boy. She was acting well. "Nothing, William."

The boy sighed. "I heard your secret chat with Tatiana."

Tessa looked down on the ground, then closed her eyes, sadly. Will heard her saying, "Fuck it," quietly. When she looked back at Will, her face was expressionless. "It's..." She stuttered. "It's nothing. We're late to class, William." She blushed. Will looked like he couldn't understand anything, and that made Tessa a bit more comfortable. "We can talk about this later."

Will didn't insist, and that made Tessa feel better. She took a deep breath, then walked even faster.

* * *

><p>When the first two periods were over, in the break time, Tessa went to Thomas' class to see him. She knew what she was doing, and she knew, that this was a terrible thing, but she had to make Will stay away from her. Axel Mortmain and real danger wasn't a stupid, childish thing like friendship or love.<p>

When Tessa saw Thomas sitting alone in the class, her heart broke. She wasn't into him, and that was really upsetting. She knew the pain of not being liked for such a long time. "Thomas?"

Thomas looked at Tessa, then widened his eyes. "Tessa? What are you doing here?"

The girl smiled, and came closer to the boy. She sat on the desk which was half a meter away from Thomas. "We need to talk."

Thomas tried to look serious. He really liked Tessa. "Yes?"

Tessa took a deep breath. She thought about Will's beautiful, magnificent eyes. "I like you, Thomas." she said. Then thought about how red Will's lips were. "We didn't date, but we had a thing, you know. And if you want to, too," She swallowed. Will's height, his body, his hair, his beautiful face. Will was beautiful. His beauty was probably beyond this world. "That's unusual for a girl to ask this, but, would you like to date me, Thomas?"

Thomas swallowed. He was blinking so fast that Tessa thought it was a disease for a moment. "Yes," he said. Then swallowed again. "Yes, yes, of course!" He stood up and hugged the girl. Tessa hugged him, too, thinking that it was Will. She had to wait for all this losing-job danger thing to end to be with Will. And until that time... She had to hide her feelings.

* * *

><p>When the school ended, Tessa walked fast to get out of the Mathematics Campus. She was going to walk to home, so she had to be fast to not to see Will or Thomas or anyone else.<p>

But it was too late.

She saw Will and Tatiana walking together. They were getting out of the Social Studies Campus. When they made eye contact with Tatiana, the girl winked at Tessa, then wrapped her arm to Will's. Will didn't hold her arm, because he saw Tessa. He waved a hand, but Tessa ignored that. He started running to the girl. Tessa tried to walk even waster.

A few miles away, Will stopped the girl by holding her arm. Tessa's arm hurt, so she shouted at the boy. "Stop it!"

Will looked into the girl's eyes. "Tess, what's going on?"

"Don't call me that, Will." she replied. She was trying to be cold to him, to keep him away from herself. "I'm afraid I can't see you for these few weeks."

Will raised an eyebrow. He came closer to Tessa. Tessa took a step back. "Why is that?"

Tessa closed her eyes. She was about to cry. "We are now in a relationship with Thomas."

Will swallowed, too. He took a step back, then looked at Tessa again. It was as if he really was suffering because of a punch in the face. "What does that mean?"

Tessa looked at the boy, too. "He doesn't want for me to see you. At least for these few weeks. To make our bond stronger. He thinks you make our relationship worse."

_I_ _hate_ _myself,_ Tessa thought. _How_ _could_ _I_ _ever_ _say_ _that?_

"Oh," Will said, he tried hard not to look like in pain now. Tessa tried to hold the tears coming. The boy really was upset, for the first time. "So you love him?"

"I guess."

"I guess?" He raised an eyebrow. "Do you love him, or not?"

Tessa's eyes stared without seeing now. "I love him, Will, if that's what you want to hear."

Will nodded. Nodded again, and again. He kept nodding. "I see," he said finally. He touched his black hair, messed it up, then took a few steps back. He looked into Tessa's eyes, then did the thing that Tessa was afraid of the most. He smiled at her. With sincere. "If he thinks I break your relationship," he said. He was not looking angry, and because of that, Tessa wanted to kill herself. "Then this is the line where we start out new lives, right?"

Tessa nodded. She was shaking. Will didn't look at her this time. He took a few steps back, too. "Good luck in life, then. Until you break up with that piece of shit."

Tessa smiled. Will turned back, and started walking. He didn't look back, not even once, and Tessa felt like she lost him forever. No. She didn't. Losing him like this... This way was much better than losing him in reality, forever and ever. She could stand to all this. She had to sacrifice herself to not to lose Will. She couldn't let him get involved in Axel Mortmain's dirty jobs to save Tessa and Elizabeth. It was the Grays' job to get involved, not a Herondale's.

_I_ _did_ _the_ _right_ _thing,_ she thought. She was going to stay away from him only for a few weeks. A few weeks could be a lot, yes, but she could wait forever for Will, she knew that.

And with tears coming down from her face, she started walking to Magnus' house. She was going to tell him everything, and was secretly going to ask help from him. He was the only person who could understand her now. And the only person who could help her about all of this.


	9. The One That Could Hurt The Most

With her right hand, Tessa wiped her tears. She now was in front of Magnus' apartment. She knocked the door and waited for a few seconds.

"Yes?" A cautious voice came from the other side of the door. Magnus used not to do that when somebody came to his house. "It's me, Magnus," Tessa said. Then realized that this sounded really stupid, she came closer to the door and swallowed. "It's Tessa."

Magnus then without another thought opened the door and hugged the girl. "By the Angel," he said. His black hair was messier than ever. It was as if he came back from a war. "You're okay."

Tessa dropped her school bag in the beginning of the living room, then went to sit on the purple sofa. "Why wouldn't I be okay?" she asked, looking cautiously around if anyone was there, but there was no one except for Magnus himself and his annoying cat Chairman Meow. Magnus sat on the white sofa which was next to Tessa's. "You know, because of the stuff going on between Mortmain and Lizzy."

Magnus loved calling Elizabeth "Lizzy". Tessa loved that, too, but the matter was beyond that. How did he know about that? Did Tessa's mother tell Magnus about the stuff? But how? And more importantly, why?

"How do you even know about this?" Tessa's eyes were looking curious. Magnus grinned. "Love, me and not knowing your family matters? I'm the first person Lizzy would run to in a matter like this."

Tessa smiled and tried hard not to show her curiousity about this. Elizabeth never used to tell important stuff to people, even to Magnus. The only ones who knew about this were Herondales, Grays and some members of the Lightwoods. Well, actually, every Lightwood except for Gabriel and Gideon.

"Anyways," Tessa continued. "If you know it, than you know that Will knows it, too."

Magnus grinned. "You're in a danger of being kidnapped, and you still think about Will?"

Tessa shook her head. "I don't. He thinks about my safety. And if we know these guys will try to kidnap me, why don't we go to the policemen? Wouldn't that be more helpful?"

Magnus laughed really loud. Tessa looked around without a reason, then looked at the man again. Tessa was sixteen now, and Magnus was at least thirty six, but they looked like they were the same age. "Firstly, I'm sick of this tension going on between you and Will. Fix it, or live with the pain of it forever. Secondly, we're not sure, love. And even if we were, if we gave them to the policemen, they could find us years later and never let go of us. We have to finish it in this timezone, or we don't do anything. At all."

Tessa stared blankly at the ground. Why would someone involve crime in a situation of jealousy? Benedict Lightwood obviously was jealous of Tessa's mom's place in their work, but why didn't he just tried harder to be better than Elizabeth, and instead, why did he made a companionship agreement with one of the most dangerous businessmen of London? Was he really that stupid?

"God, I don't know what to do," Tessa talked to herself. Magnus heard that, and smiled with sincere. He touched to the girl's shoulder. "Everyhthing's going to be all right, love. You just go to your school and think about Will. The rest is up to us."

Tessa shook her head. "Look at you, Magnus," she said. She raised both of her eyebrows in an underestimating way. "One of the strongest and sassiest men of London, now hiding from Mortmain, whom I shouldn't be afraid of."

Tessa just confessed that she was afraid of Mortmain. She stood up, took a few steps back, then stopped. She was not afraid of Mortmain, but she was afraid of what he could do. He could kidnap Tessa, and do nothing to her, but force Elizabeth to quit her job, and then what? They were going to be poor, without any money, without a father to their family, without a house to their family... They were going to be a big zero. Tessa didn't want for that to happen. She didn't want for Elizabeth to lose this job. They were now rich and it was good this way. She didn't want to be poor again.

"I'm not afraid of Mortmain, love," Magnus finally could say. "I didn't open the door, because I was afraid it could be Elizabeth or Will or Edmund telling me you were kidnapped. That," He swallowed. Tessa took a few steps closer to the man now. "Was what made me feel afraid."

The girl hugged the man, then thanked him a few times. Magnus put his hand on the girl's head whilst hugging, and whispered to her ear. "We're going to fix all this, love. Don't you ever worry."

* * *

><p>A week passed by like that. Tessa wasn't talking to Will anymore, and she wasn't hanging out with the gang, too. Jem, however, was the nicest of them and in the mornings, he was walking with Tessa when Thomas was not around. But when Thomas was around, they weren't even looking at Tessa in the face. They were right.<p>

That morning, Cecily came next to Tessa whilst the girl was walking to the Social Studies Campus. "Morning, Tess," she smiled, then gave a kiss on the cheek to Tessa. Tessa smiled. "Morning, Cecy."

Cecily started walking a bit faster now. "What's happening, Tessa?" she asked. Tessa stopped, then looked at the girl. They were now in front of the big, creme coloured middle sized building. The Social Studies Campus. "What?" Tessa replied with a dumb face on. She actually did understand the matter. "Oh, you do know what the hell I'm talking about."

Tessa tried to smile. "Nothing, Cecy, best friends can sometimes be mad at each other. It will be better, don't worry."

Cecily shook her head, she wasn't convinced. She blinked her big blue eyes. "You are more than best friends, Tessa. Well, actually, this is not called friendship anymore, to be honest. He now hangs out with that Tatiana whore and he really doesn't like her. I can see that."

Tessa swallowed. She spoke without thinking. "Does he hang out with her now?"

Cecily grinned. "Look, you're jealous."

Tessa shook her head. She was just about to answer, they both heard an iPhone ring. That was Tessa's phone.

NO CALLER ID

The two both looked at each other. Cecily made a fake grin. "Probably someone's just mocking."

Tessa made that grin, too. She opened the phone, and as soon as she did, Cecily sticked her ear to the other side of the phone, too. "Yes?" Tessa said with a shaking voice. She could feel Cecily shaking, too.

When nobody replied, Cecily started shouting. "This girl didn't buy this phone for you to mock her, you fucker!" she said. Tessa took a few steps back to be away from Cecily, then threw a look at the girl meaing "What the hell are you doing?" and Cecily got it.

"If you're mocking, then at least speak."

Tessa then did regret saying this. The man on the other side of the phone started taking deep breathes to make the girls hear him. Cecily came closer and sticked her ear to the phone again. "C'mon, just speak." she said. Then, after hearing this, the man did speak.

"It's the prince's heir speaking, Ms. Gray and Ms. Herondale. The prince just wanted to wish you a good day."

Then he ended the conversation. Tessa and Cecily both looked at the phone, then to each other. Cecily fake laughed. "That was the worst joke ever."

Tessa fake smiled, too. "Yeah, totally. The worst. Joke. Yeah."

The girl put her phone back to her pocket, then got her arm wrapped into Cecily's. Cecily did the same thing, then they got into the campus. They didn't talk about this, but they both knew, they weren't going to say anything to anyone.

* * *

><p>That Sunday was the eighteenth of December. It had been a month since they weren't doing a classic Herondale-Gray meal. So, Tessa was going to go, too.<p>

She did wear a beautiful, white dress. It was a long with a really small decollete dress that looked perfect on Tessa's body. Then she wore her scarlet coloured high heels.

When she got ready and came down the stairs, she saw her beautiful mother.

Elizabeth wore an emerald green dress, made a messy bun and a really natural make up. Tessa did look like her, but Elizabeth was much more prettier. She came next to the woman and hugged her. She smelled the pretty smell on Elizabeth's shoulder, then closed her eyes. "You look so pretty, Mom."

Tessa could hear the woman making a small laugh. "Sure not prettier than you, my beautiful girl."

Tessa smiled, too, then she held Elizabeth's hand and walked with her to the mirror. It was a longitudinal mirror so they could see from their feet to their heads.

Tessa was a few inches taller than Elizabeth even without the heels, and now with the heels, she was much more taller. Still, Elizabeth was tall, too.

"What if they're with their pajamas waiting for us?" Tessa asked whilst grinning. Elizabeth laughed, shook her head, then looked into Tessa's eyes from the mirror. "It's almost Christmas time, Tessie. I'm sure they're much more eloberated than we are."

Tessa nodded, then turned back to the door. After taking her small purse from the key chain, she got out of the house. She walked through to her mother's car, and when Elizabeth opened it, she got in.

* * *

><p>Linette, Will's mother, opened the door. Elizabeth and Linette were really close friends, so they spoke for a few minutes like always, then Linette hugged Tessa, and made them get in.<p>

The dinner table was longer than it had to be. Sophie was like always working, and when she saw Tessa, she came closer and hugged her. "Tessie, I love you, but I wish you didn't come."

Tessa hugged her, too, but then went a step back and looked at her in the eyes. "What?-"

"Look who's here!" A girl shouted. Tessa turned back to the entrance door of the dining room, and saw Tatiana standing, next to Will. She came closer to Tessa and hugged her. Tessa's arms were not wrapping Tatiana's back. "I'm surprised you're here."

Tessa looked at her hair. "I'm surprised _you're _here."

Whilst Tatiana was still squeezing Tessa, Tessa saw Will looking at her. When they made eye contact, Will looked to another side. Tessa then looked down.

When they sat, the dining table was not like always. The line was going like this :

_The beginning seat belonged to Edmund._

_On the right of him, there was Elizabeth, on her right, there was Will, on his right there was Cecily._

_On the left of Edmund, there was Linette, on her right, there was Tatiana, and on her right there was Tessa._

"Okay," Edmund said, whilst Sophie was presenting the meals. Tessa looked at her and smiled. Then, when Edmund saw them smiling at each other, he turned back to look at Sophie. "Oh, by the way," he said. He was sincerely smiling. "Sophie, love, I don't want for you to work today. We will all take our meals by ourselves. I want you to sit, too."

Sophie first looked at Edmund, then Linette, and then Tessa. She smiled. "Thank you, Mr. Herondale."

Edmund shook his head. "Not Mr. Herondale. You can call me Edmund. You're a part of this family, too."

Sophie smiled again, and all in a sudden hugged Edmund. Edmund hugged her, too, then watched her sitting next to Tessa. Tessa held Sophie's hand, then smiled at her. Then all eyes went back to looking at Edmund's.

"What was I saying?" he said, then made eye contact with Will. "Oh, yes, everyone, Will has an announcement to tell you all."

Sophie squeezed Tessa's hand. Will smiled at everyone, except for Tessa, then started speaking. "Well, I know, this happened too soon, but myself and Tiana-"

Cecily stopped him. "Who the hell is Tiana?"

Will grinned. His sarcastic mode was full on the mode. "Tatiana, Cecy. Tatiana. Myself and Tatiana are officially in a relationship. I want for _all of you _to support us."

Tessa did let go of Sophie's hand. Cecily looked at Tessa, than shook her head. "What the bloody hell, Gwilym Owain?"

They all knew, when Cecily was to speak Welsh, she had to be really angry. "You can't date a Lightwood!" She shouted. Then looked at Tatiana with an ashamed face. Will laughed. "Cecy, you're with Gabriel?"

Cecily shook her head. Everyone knew he was right, but Cecily wasn't shaking her head because of that. "But both Gabriel and Gideon don't know anything. You are putting Tessa in danger!"

Everybody was silent now. Tessa waited for Will to answer her, but he was staring blankly at the food. When seeing that, Tessa stood up, and looked at Edmund and Linette and Elizabeth. "I'm sorry guys," she said. "For ruining your meal." She took a few steps back. Looking at Will, she saw him staring at her dress and body. She shivered, but tried hard not to show it. "I'll be back in five."


	10. Ophelia

**Hey everyone. I am truly sorry for not posting for 24 days, but I'm back! I will not give up on this story, nor will forget about it. Thank you so much for sticking up with me and waiting for a new chapter. I will post two chapters a week from now on, so yeah. Thank you again. I hope you like this one, too.**

**Love,**

**C.P.**

Tessa got herself out of the house without even doubting. She did wear her coat, then started to walk even faster. _What am I supposed to do now? _she thought. Just about a few days ago, her life was going good, and now, it was as if it was an action-crime TV show.

* * *

><p>After walking for a while, she was now standing in front of Tate Britain, which was an art gallery in front of the river Thames in Millbank, Westminister, London. Tessa remembered how she loved this place. How she loved Thames, and how at times Will, Jem, Tessa and the others used to come here. It had been a really long time ever since they weren't coming here.<p>

She got into the place, luckily it wasn't closed yet, but there were no too many people inside.

She first saw the drawings inside the fancy frames. It was her fifth time coming here now, and the drawing she loved the most was Ophelia's dead body. This place and the drawings were magical, but they all belonged to some stories, and Tessa had not yet read any of those stories, except for Hamlet.

Tessa loved the story Hamlet. It was such a classic tale, where at the end everybody but Horatio, the boy's friend dies, but Tessa loved stories such cliche like that.

The thing about Ophelia was that she was a really pretty girl, who was in love with the Prince of Denmark, Prince Hamlet. Hamlet was in love with her, too, but because of his father, the king, who was murdered in a mysterious way by the hand of those who he trusted the most, Hamlet goes "mad" as long as people think and this makes Ophelia feel depressed. She then understands that she is not able to stand to all those madnesses and depression, she suicides by going to the river and drowning her own self.

_I don't think I will ever understand you, Ophelia, _Tessa thought. _Killing your own precious life for another life? Loving someone more than loving your own self? I don't think I can understand that._

Still, even though thinking that, Tessa was in love with this painting. There were colours red, purple and pink for the flowers, and the other colours were greenish, blue-ish colours that were making the drawing look even more epic.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

She turned her head to right, to where the voice came from. She saw an in style man, who was wearing a navy blue suit, had a scarlet coloured handkerchief inside his outside pocket of his suit. His hair's edges were white, but the other places were brown. He had a beard and blue eyes which were looking cunning. "Sorry?" Tessa asked, looking into the man's eyes. She couldn't understand if he told it to Tessa.

"Beautiful, is it not, Ms. Gray?" The man repeated. This time he was looking to the painting. Tessa straightened her messed up hair, then looked at the man with an eyebrow raised. "I'm sorry? Who are you?"

The man put his hand into one of his pockets, then looked at Tessa. "I happen to be Axel Mortmain, dear Ms. Gray."

Tessa swallowed. _What? _she thought. Took a deep breath, then swallowed again. Was he here to kidnap her? Was this the time? "What do you want from me?"

"I do not want anything from you," he said. "Ms. Gray."

Tessa's mouth and hands were shaking. She took a few steps back, then swallowed again. "I have to go now."

She turned back and started walking fast. She didn't look back, and got out of the gallery. She saw a black Range Rover waiting in front of the place. First, she couldn't be sure, because it could even be Mortmain's men, but then she saw someone getting out of the car. It was Will.

Tessa ran to the boy, but when they had inches between, she didn't hug him. "Were you following me?"

Will looked serious. "I followed you. What the hell were you thinking? How did you even walk here?"

Tessa shook her head, then looked back, to the gallery, to see if Mortmain got out. He didn't. "I-I... I came here to see beauty, William. Something I hadn't been seeing for a long time now."

She was not going to tell that she had a chat with Axel Mortmain to Will.

"Oh, you say so? You could tell me, too. We could come together."

Tessa laughed out loud. "So you could bring Tatiana? No, thanks."

Will made a grin. He had a sarcastic face on. "If you were going to be jealous why did you want for me to be with Tatiana?"

Tessa swallowed, then looked into the boy's eyes. "What? Who told you that?"

"I heard you two," he said. "Then asked Tatiana to tell everything. It was easy like that."

Tessa couldn't understand it. It couldn't be easy like that. Tatiana wasn't that easy, nor good of a girl. "Is she in love with you?"

Will looked at the girl's eyes. His eyes... _Damn, they are good, _Tessa thought. The boy smirked. "I don't think so. Why are you even wondering?"

"Ugh, Will, shut up." Tessa said. "I'm with Thomas. And you're with Tatiana. Don't think I would ever be jealous of you."

"But you are." His answer was easy like that. Tessa did nothing but to look at his face, and Will was not doing anything, too. For a second, Tessa thought they were about to kiss, but they both knew, that was impossible.

"Can you just drive me to home?" Tessa said, then took a few steps forward to get in the car. Will, who was still standing in the same place, nodded. "Sure."


	11. Feelings And Theories

**Hello everybody. I started writing this the day after I posted the last chapter, but finished writing it today. Sorry for the mistakes, thank you for reading and loving it if you are.**

**Sincerely yours, **

**C.P.**

Will stopped the car. Tessa looked like she was going to ask him why he did that, but then she turned her head to the right and saw her house. She nodded as if she was now understanding why Will stopped. Then she opened the car without saying anything to Will. Will could feel his hands getting colder. That was Will's thing. When he got mad or upset, his hands'd be colder, and his blood pressure'd be lower than it was.

"Goodnight, Will." Tessa said finally. She never used to call him by the name other people used to call Will for. She always used to say "William" when she was to say something to him. He couldn't believe they were in this kind of a situation. He never thought things could get as serious as it is with Tessa. Not ever.

"Goodnight, Tessa."

Tessa closed the car's door, then she walked fast to the house. Will realized, she never looked back. Not even once. Was she really not caring about Will anymore? Was that what it was all going to be? Was she really in love with that Thomas kid?

_No, _he thought. _She's just doing this to keep me away from Mortmain. That is all what this is about. Because I'm her best friend._

_I'm her best friend._

He closed his eyes. He knew, he was still in front of Tessa's house and he also knew that she was all alone by herself in the house because Elizabeth was still at Will's. He thought of getting out of the car, walking to the house, and asking Tessa if he could stay in to protect her, but he knew, that would be good for nothing but to make Will realize he had feelings for Tessa even more.

_Maybe..._

His thoughts started to drown him now.

_Maybe I should just stay here, just to be sure no one is around. _

_No. Will, are you stupid? Nothing would happen to her. She can protect herself, too. Don't be mad. _

"Ugh!" He yelled inside the car. Then he looked around, because even though he knew no one could hear him, he felt nervous.

Finally, he managed to start the car again. He put his foot on the gas, and he left the place. Thinking about Tessa was making him mad. He was the good old Tess, but then Will was thinking again, and saying by himself: Was she still the good old Tess?

* * *

><p>Tessa put her backbag on her back, then held her head high, and walked fast in the schoolyard to find Cecily. She didn't want to hold this Mortmain thing inside, she didn't want to explode inside. She thought of telling it to Magnus, but she knew, Magnus'd immediately go to Elizabeth and tell her everything. And Elizabeth probably would've force Tessa to stay at home forever for her to be safe. She knew she didn't want that.<p>

She saw Cecily talking to Gabriel. Without saying anything, she walked towards to the girl. Both of them didn't see her coming probably because of the crowd, so Tessa didn't even bother herself with shouting. She heard Cecily saying, "Will may be a tough looking guy, I know, but he has a heart of a marshmallow."

She saw Gabriel looking confused. Even Tessa couldn't stop herself from laughing. "But marshmallows don't have hearts."

Cecily hit his arm with her right hand fist. "No," she said. "You really are a Lightworm, huh? Don't understand it like that, Gabriel. I mean he has a soft heart."

Gabriel looked not-so-convinced. At all. "I'm still not sure."

Tessa didn't want to listen to them secretly anymore, so she touched to Cecily's shoulder. "Hi guys," she said. "What were you two talking about?"

Gabriel blushed. Cecily was still the same, though. "Gabriel doesn't want for Will to know that we're dating," she said. Tessa looked surprised and smiled looking at Gabriel, but both the two of them were looking like as if this was a "long time ago" thing. "Well, but, I do. It has been a month, and he still thinks Will would punch him in the face."

Tessa laughed. "Will?" she said. "My Will?" Her stomach hurt because of laughing. "I think he would be the first one to ask to be Cecy's maid, if that was possible, of course."

Gabriel was looking shocked at Tessa, and Cecily had a sarcastic smirk on. Tessa raised an eyebrow, feeling upset they both didn't laugh at her joke. "What?"

Cecily's grin widened. "Did you just say "My Will"?"

Tessa's eyes widened. She stuttered. "D-did I?" she asked. "No, Cecy," she laughed. "I think you heard it like that."

Then she heard a voice right behind herself. "No, I heard it, too."

She turned back, then blushed. It was Thomas. First she looked at Cecily, who had no idea what Tessa had to do, then she looked at Gabriel, who looked like he wanted to run away.

She turned back to Thomas and immediately hugged him. "Wow, I've missed you!" she shouted. Thomas hugged her, too. "Yeah, me, too."

Tessa took a deep breath with a relief. She thought Thomas was really annoying, but Will was thinking the same way, too, so the only way he could stay away from Tessa was to use Thomas. She knew, this was gross, but she had to. She was not going to kiss him, not going to hold his hand, but she had to hug him. She had to look sincere.

"Let's go inside, it's 8:30." Thomas said. Tessa took a few steps back, then shook her head. "Nope, I need to talk to Cecily. You go, I'll catch up."

Thomas smiled at the girl, then made a duck face. Tessa didn't like ducks. Will _hated _ducks. _I guess he's trying to do a kiss face, _Tessa thought. So, she didn't do this gross face, but she waved a hand to the boy. Then turned her head back to Cecily. "Cecy, I need to talk to you. Important."

Cecily nodded. "What's it?"

Tessa looked at Gabriel, then smiled sincerely. "Gabriel, why don't you go and find Sophie and Gideon?"

Gabriel grinned. "Okay, got it." Then he left and both of the girls looked at each other. Cecily made her long, black hair a beautiful looking pony tail. "Yes, tell me, Tess. What's it?"

Tessa took a deep breath. "Remember the guy who pranked us?" she said. Cecily nodded. "I guess he has something really important to do with Mortmain."

Cecily made an uncomfortable noise. "You say so?"

"I know so," Tessa replied. "He said, _It's the prince's heir speaking, Ms. Gray and Ms. Herondale. The prince just wanted to wish you a good day. _If you ask me, I think prince is Mortmain. And the heir... I thought about that, too, and I think the heir is his son or something."

Cecily shook her head, then made a grin. "I don't think so. We don't even know he's that old."

Tessa looked away. "Actually... I do."

"What?"

The girl tried to smile and look into Cecy's eyes. "I met him. Yesterday."

Cecily's mouth made an "O" and Tessa laughed at that. Cecily looked angry. "Don't laugh, you woman." She said. "How could you not tell it immediately?"

"I was afraid. Whatever, Cecy. He's probably in his forties. So I think he has a son. The problem is, we need to find who he is."

Cecily rubbed her forehead. "Do you think his last name is Mortmain, too?"

Tessa shook her head. "I don't think so. I think Mortmain is kind of a man who holds his family behind those dirty jobs."

Cecily nodded. She looked at the time, then saw it that it was almost the first period time. "We're late, Tess. We should talk about it later today."

Tessa nodded. "Okay." When she was just about to go to the Mathematics Campus, she turned back to Cecily who was walking away. "Hey, Cecy!"

Cecily turned back. "Yeah?"

"Don't tell this stuff to Will, okay?"

Cecily first raised an eyebrow, but then she accepted it and nodded. Tessa knew, she understood it, but she trusted Cecily. "Okay!"

* * *

><p>At the end of the last period, Tessa ran away from the campus. She didn't want to see Thomas, so she was trying hard to avoid him. Luckily, for today, she managed to do that.<p>

When she got out of the school, she saw Will and Tatiana getting into Will's black Range Rover. Tessa walked fast but still, was spotted by Tatiana. "Oh, look who's here! Little Tessie!"

Tessa raised an eyebrow. "You're not calling me that, love."

Tatiana smiled. She was just about to say something, but she got interrupted by Will. "Where's your boyfriend, princess?"

Tessa laughed. "Is this nicknaming people a thing of you two?"

Will grinned. "Maybe," he said. "We have so many "things" like this. But I don't think you'd want to see them."

_What the hell is this piece of shit is talking about? _Tessa thought, but then realized, those were really heavy thoughts. "Oh, I don't think you have as many as we have with Thomas, though."

Will looked jealous. Tessa made a sarcastic smirk. The ropes were on her hands. "Whatever, lovers," she said. "I have to go."

Tatiana raised an eyebrow, didn't make eye contact with Tessa. "Oh, thank God."

Will rolled his eyes. "I could purpose to drop you off," he said, grinning, "But we have to go to the cinema with Tiana. We can't be late, you know."

Tessa tried hard not to feel anything. She looked right into Will's eyes. That was not a joke. He was being the old Will again. The casanova Will. "Not surprised," Tessa said. Then turned back to walk away. "Good old Will, ha?"

She didn't look back at Will to see his reaction. She just walked even faster and got her phone out. She started texting.

_To : Cecily Herondale_

_Please don't tell me you'll be meeting w/ Gabriel 'cuz I really need you now. Meet you at six. Tate Britain London Gallery._

_-Tessa_


	12. TC Tanner

**Hello everyone. I did read the reviews, and thank you so much for liking the story. About the last review, making Will jealous, your thoughts mean a lot to me, but believe me, I have much better ways to make Will jealous of Tessa. I'm sure you'll like those ways a few chapters later. I know, my fanfiction story is about Tessa and Will falling in love with each other, or realizing that they were in love ever since the beginning, but it also has adventure, too. Tessa can't just put Will in danger, and she can't just break up with Thomas and jump to Will's arms immediately. That's not who Tessa is to me. If you've liked the earlier chapters, I'm sure you'll like the other chapters, too. Thank you so much for reading again.**

**Sincerely yours,**

**C.P.**

Tessa was in love with this painting. She really was. She used to look at Ophelia's dead body, and even though those hippy-ish things weren't her stuff, Tessa was feeling hooked when she looked at this art. The colors, the painting style... Tessa was in love with that.

But now, when she was looking at this painting, all she could think about was Axel Mortmain. Who was he? And what was his deal with the Grays?

"Am I late?" Tessa heard a girl shouting from the other side of the entrance. She looked at her left, and saw Cecily. An old lady, with white hair and a fancy white dress, made a 'sshhh' to her and Cecily repeated that 'shhh' by saying, "You're the 'ssshhh', lady!" to the woman.

When she was standing next to Tessa, the girl hugged Cecy. She could hear Cecily laughing quietly. "Calm down, nugget, it has only been two hours."

Tessa laughed. Then immediately looked serious. "Cecy, we really need to focus." she said. Cecily nodded. Then she raised an eyebrow. "Why were you standing here?"

"I met Mortmain here."

Cecily's eyes widened. "I know that's senseless, but was he ugly? I mean, as a man?"

Tessa tried hard not to laugh, but eventually, she did. Hard. "Well..." She said. "Actually he's pretty handsome for a man at his age." Then she thought about how he could kill both of them, and she felt like puking. "Shut up, Cecily. You're asking if the man who probably wants to murder me is handsome or not!"

Cecily closed her mouth. "Okay, sorry. You're right." she said. Then sat on the settle. She got her backbag on her knees, and opened it. Tessa saw her laptop inside the backbag, and after a second, Cecily got the laptop out of the backbag and put it on the settle. "I'm prepared, of course," she said. Tessa smiled, then sat on the settle, too. "That's good," she replied. "But what are we even going to look for?" Her gray eyes looked tired at the laptop. She was exhausted, but she had to be stronger for this. Not only Tessa, but because she was next to Tessa when pranked, now, Cecily was in danger, too. _I can't just let her be in danger, but she knows not to sacrifice herself for me. She knows that she just has to protect her own self._

Cecily made a fake cough. "Tessie, come back to life." she said. Tessa shook herself, then smiled at Cecily. "Okay, sorry. What are we going to look for?"

Cecily opened Google. Without even thinking, she started typing.

_**10.500 Results for Axel Mortmain**_

Both Tessa and Cecily looked at the results. Cecily's hand wasn't moving. Probably she was getting herself mentally prepared to look inside those results. When she looked all prepared, she took a deep breath, then looked at Tessa. "Let's do this."

* * *

><p>The movie's name was <em>Into The Woods<em>. Will knew, Tessa loved those kind of movies. She loved Disney. But on the other hand, Tatiana was only here to make out with Will.

Their place was on the K line, which was at the end of the movie theater. When they sat, Tatiana immediately started kissing him on her seat, then held his jaw line places, and kissed him even more hard. Will actually enjoyed this, like all males, but it didn't feel as good as it used to. "Tess," he whispered. "I don't think I'm feeling okay."

Tatiana stopped. She leaned back to her seat, and looked at the boy with an angry face. "What did you call me?" she said. Will swallowed. He knew, he didn't have to tell Tatiana anything at all, but he also knew that Tatiana really was into Will, so she was deserving an explanation. "I'm... I don't feel okay, probably because of that."

Tatiana closed her eyes, then took a deep breath. "I don't feel okay, too." she whispered. She stood up, then looked right into the boy's eyes. "I should get going. See you tomorrow, Will."

Will, who felt even worse, stood up, too. "I can drop you off-"

Tatiana shook her head. "No, thank you. I want to walk."

Will nodded. Did he really break her heart that much? He wanted to tell her that his situation wasn't that different or easy, too.

_Believe me, I'm broken, too._

"Sorry, Tatiana." he said. He had to say this. Luckily, there was nobody else in the theater except for the two. Tatiana looked at Will, then smiled. "See you tomorrow, Will."

* * *

><p>It had been fifteen minutes since Cecily and Tessa found out that Axel Mortmain had a Wikipedia page.<p>

_**Axel Hollingworth Mortmain, is a successful businessman. Born in 1966, Mortmain was raised by his adoptive family, the Hollingworths.**_

_**Hollingworth family had been doing foreign trade ever since the early 1970s. John Shade, Mortmain's adoptive father, has earned millions of Euros because of this job. Later on, his wife, and Mortmain's adoptive mother, Anna Shade, died because of cancer, and John Shade stopped continuing his job, and turned it over to Mortmain when he was in his 15-16s. Mortmain felt ambitious and did interesting things to make their business more valuable. Years later, when his father John Shade died because of the depression of his wife's death, Mortmain named the business Mortmain and Co. and made interesting works.**_

_**Famous businessman told the media that he will be turning over his works to his beloved son, T. C. Tanner. **_

Tessa and Cecily both looked at each other. T.C. Tanner? Who was that?

"At least we are on the right track, huh?" Cecily said, smiling sincerely. Tessa nodded. "Yes," she replied. "But T.C. Tanner? The surname Tanner feels so familiar."

Cecily looked confused. "I don't know. Let's search that, too."

_**T.C. Tanner**_

_**2 Results **_

Tessa and Cecily looked at each other. Cecily took a deep breath, then scrolled down to see the results.

_**Axel Mortmain - Wikipedia, A Free Encyclopedia**_

_Axel Hollingworth Mortmain, is a successful businessman. Born in 1966... -open the link to see more about Axel Mortmain._

_** thomastanner 's Instagram page**_

_Childhood friends.. sophiecollins _

_3 Likes, 1 Comment_

Tessa swallowed. This was Thomas' Instagram account. Thomas, who happened to be Tessa's boyfriend. "What the hell?" Cecily said. She opened the link, and started to look at Thomas' Instagram photos. He had three photos. One of them was taken when he was training, one of them was alone, looking at a wonderful view, and one of them was with Sophie, probably when they were thirteen or so.

Tessa knew, Sophie and Thomas were childhood friends. Sophie met Thomas when she was adopted by Charlotte and Henry Branwell, because they were neighbors. Probably she had never met his father.

"Thomas can't be Axel Mortmain's son," Tessa said. He could be annoying at times, but he was a good person. He was not cunning, not ambitious. He was not like Mortmain.

Cecily nodded. "I think so, too. But we have to see him as a suspect now, Tess. His name is Thomas Tanner. Similarities? I don't think this can be a coincidence."

Tessa looked blankly at the writing on the laptop. When she thought about it, the man who pranked Cecily and Tessa; his voice was similar to Thomas'. _God, no, what the hell am I thinking? _she thought. "I think we should stop now, Cecy," Tessa said. It was not going to be better anymore, so the best thing to do was to stop. Cecily nodded. "Yeah, you're right."

* * *

><p>Will felt worried about Cecily. It was seven o'clock now, and she was still not here, at home.<p>

After waiting for minutes and minutes, Will called Cecily. After a few rings, Cecily opened it. "Yeah?"

Will's voice sounded worried. "Where the hell are you?"

"I was at the gallery with Tessa. I'll be home. Give me five minutes."

Will swallowed. Tessa? He knew Cecily and Tessa were good friends, but nowadays, they were even closer, and Will knew, that was not about him. "So you're now secretly having meetings with Tessa, huh? You could at least tell me."

"Sorry," she said. Will felt surprised when he heard his sister apologizing. He knew Cecily admired his brother, but she wasn't the person to apologize. "No problem. I'm waiting."

When Cecily came home, she hugged Will, then gave a kiss to him on the cheek. "Did you and Tessa change bodies or what?" Will said, grinning. Cecily punched him painlessly by his arm, then laughed. "No, of course," she replied. "I'm feeling good today."

Will smiled. "That's good." he said. He followed his sister to the living room, and when Cecily sat down, he sat next to the girl. "So," he said. "Tell me what did you guys do today after school?"

Cecily raised an eyebrow, then looked at Will. "I can't believe after all what you have done, you're still wondering about Tessa."

Will swallowed. Then rolled his eyes. "No, Cecy, you misunderstood," he said. Cecily made a sarcastic smirk. "Really?" she said. "Did I?"

"Yes. I asked about what did you two did, not Tessa."

Cecily laughed. "Okay then," she said. "Then you wouldn't mind if I don't tell you, right? Because what Tessa did today is not your business at all?"

Will rolled his eyes again, then stood up. "Got it, you won't tell anything." he said. "It's good you two had fun, though."

* * *

><p>When he did lay on his bed, his smile faded. He knew, this happy-Cecily mood was fake. This was a mood Cecily tried to apply on Will when she was unhappy as hell. <em>I know what you're doing, Cecy, <em>he thought. The thing was, he wasn't understanding why Tessa was trying to avoid Will, who was strong, protective and selfless; but she was telling all of her secrets to Cecily. He was not understanding that at all, but he was to. He was going to try harder to learn what those two were up to. And when he was to learn it, he was going to secretly help them.


End file.
